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Trade unions to boycott govt consultations on proposed labour code

Central trade unions on Tuesday announced their decision to boycott the Labour Ministry-convened consultations on the proposed Labour Code on…

Trade unions to boycott govt consultations on proposed labour code

Union Minister Santosh Gangwar (Photo: Facebook)

Central trade unions on Tuesday announced their decision to boycott the Labour Ministry-convened consultations on the proposed Labour Code on Social Security, which is to replace 15 existing social security labour laws.

In a communication to Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, the trade unions said the government had completely ignored the earlier suggestions of the unions for the draft legislation and so they were boycotting the third consultation, now convened.

The unions which have written a joint letter to the Minister for staying away from the 27 July meeting are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.

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The letter said: “A draft, supposedly incorporating suggestions given on the first draft circulated in 2017, was made available for the second consultation held in April, 2018. We find that none of the suggestions given, find any place in the second draft, thus making the first consultation a mockery.

“This is quite in tune with the experience we have had with the other two proposed codes ~ one on Industrial Relations and the other on Wages, where all our suggestions were discarded and the Bills have been presented in the Parliament for approval in the form that the Ministry had proposed, thus making the consultation with the CTUs a mere formality,” the letter said.

“This was blatantly repeated with the Industrial Employment Standing Orders (Amendment) Rules, 2018, on Fixed Term Employment, where total opposition of the CTUs, expressed by staging a walk-out in protest from the meeting with the Labour Minister, was not only ignored, but the Government had the audacity to mislead that the unions had given their ‘approval’ for the amendment and stealthily included it in the Finance Bill, which was not discussed in the Parliament and the said amendment was brought to force much against the total opposition of the CTUs,” the unions said.

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