Report of correspondent of Mazdoor Ekta Committee
Trade Unions and workers’ organisations in Delhi have come out in firm opposition to the Delhi government’s proposed changes to labour laws in the capital.
Among the proposed amendments by the Delhi government, is the amendment to allow women to work in night shifts in all establishments for all types of work. This will enable capitalists to force women to work at night, without any provisions for their safety and security.
The majority of working women have to work at lower wages than men, and far lower than the officially stipulated minimum wages. Most workplaces lack toilet facilities, rest rooms, adequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, which adversely affect the health of women workers. The lack of child care facilities severely impacts working women. Sexual discrimination and harassment at the workplace go on unabated. Further, Delhi is infamous for the largest number of reported crimes against women.
The threat of losing their livelihood hangs heavy over the heads of women workers, if they refuse to work in night shifts or raise their voice against their terrible working conditions. In these circumstances, legalising night shift work for women, without ensuring safety for women at the workplace as well as safe travel to and from the workplace, is a thoroughly anti-worker and anti-women step. It is aimed at providing the capitalists with a super-exploitable workforce, in order to guarantee maximum profits for them.
Under the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, establishments employing up to 100 workers were required to obtain government permission for layoffs, retrenchment and closure. This threshold is now proposed to be increased to 200 workers. This will make it easier for the capitalists to hire and fire workers at will, to ensure maximum profits for themselves at all times.
The Delhi Shops and Establishment Act is to be amended so that it will be applicable only for shops and establishments that employ ten or more workers. At present this act applies even if one worker is employed. The proposed amendment will enable the capitalist owners to exclude majority of the workers in the retail sector from any rights whatsoever, including a limit on the length of the working day.
The majority of Delhi’s industrial workers are compelled to work in the most hazardous and gruelling conditions. These is no regulation on safety at the workplace. Factory fires and other industrial accidents routinely claim the lives of hundreds of workers, while severely impairing hundreds of others for life. Workers’ organisations have pointed out that the recent government directive to the fire department to appoint private agencies for safety audits of factories, means that the government is abdicating all responsibility for ensuring safety of the workers in the factories.
The proposed amendments to the labour laws by the Delhi government are thoroughly anti-worker. They are precisely in line with the four anti-worker labour codes promulgated by the Central government in 2019 and 2020. State governments across the country are racing each other to amend the labour laws in favour of the capitalists, to legalise even more heightened exploitation of the workers and guarantee the highest rate of profit for the capitalists.
The Joint Trade Unions Forum of Delhi has expressed its strong opposition to the Delhi government’s proposed changes to labour laws. In a joint memorandum to the Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt Rekha Gupta, on 7 July, they have pointed out that the proposed amendments are a vicious attack on all the rights that workers have acquired through years of struggle. They have called upon the government to ensure equal pay for equal work, and safety for women at the workplace as well as in public places. They have demanded that the government immediately take back these proposed changes, and that minimum wages and all rights of workers under the existing labour laws be strictly implemented.
The signatories to the memorandum are the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), United Trade Union Congress (UTUC), Trade Union Co-ordination Centre (TUCC), Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), and Indian Council of Trade Unions (ICTU).