ENRICHING CORPORATES IN THE NAME OF EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IS WRONG SMALL ENTERPRISES AND WORKERS WILL HAVE TO SUFFER EVEN MORE THAN NOW

What emerged from the meeting held by the Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya with Central Trade Unions (CTUs) on August 28 is quite disconcerting, since the government is bent upon
implementing the newly announced Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) in the Budget 2024-25 which it has been said, would further enrich the corporates in the name of employment generation at the cost of small enterprises and workers, who will have to suffer even more than now.

ELI schemes, as several other plans of the Modi government including the four labour codes, are just another set of three plans that have been prepared without prior consultation with the workers’ unions though they are the chief stakeholders. CTUs have now pointed out several defects in the ELI schemes – chief among them include its coverage limited to only formal sector and are intended to help the big businesses and corporate through subsidies by proxy through EPFO with certain amount of their expenditure on labour would be shared by the government of India, while the number of jobs would be counted as if they have been created.

It should be noted that making informal workers a formal one does not amount creation of jobs. India has over 90 per cent of workers in informal sector, and also large number of informal and contract workers are also in the formal sector. If the informal and contract workers already working in the formal sector are brought into EPFO, that would not be creation of jobs, but ELI schemes would count them as jobs created. Small enterprises and workers working therein will have little benefit from these schemes. EPFO is applicable to bigger enterprises who employ more than 19 workers. It is also a fact that in the Modi era,
outsourcing, contract, and informality of workers have been on the rise.

Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya had called the meeting with the CTUs, the agenda of which was to discuss the ELI schemes. After the meeting, Mandaviya said that detailed discussions were held on the ELI schemes, which are projected to create 2 crore jobs in the country. “We are going to implement this scheme. We need inputs and suggestions from the CTUs on this scheme. We will use their suggestions while implementing the scheme,” he said.

So, there will not be second thought by the government on their decision to implement the ELI schemes, and
the meeting was only a formality of taking suggestions from the CTUs. It is therefore clear that the suggestions from the CTUs may or may not be used by the government though they are one of the three
stakeholders on labour and employment issues in the country under the tripartite principle.

It is another matter, Mandaviya noted that unions are the voice of the workers and their insights are invaluable to shaping policies that are not only effective but also fair and inclusive. Had his words have any face value, CTUs would have been consulted by Modi government before taking decision on preparing and implementing schemes and laws in the country including the present ELI and the four controversial labour codes. However, Modi government did just the opposite.

Even the government-supported trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) was not consulted before the government decision. That is why, BMS now has sought clarification on ELI in the meeting. BMS vice president R B Sharma said that ELI scheme is only for the formal sector. He asked the Centre to do something for the informal sector which is in trouble. “There is huge spending for the formal sector, but the informal sector and workers in informal sector are suffering,” he said.

The way of functioning of the Modi government has always been objectionable. The government does not give enough time to nongovernment participants to think  over properly. The meeting on ELI was not an exception. Even BMS has complained that the discussion points were not shared with the CTUs ahead of meeting.

Ten CTUs –INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, and UTUC –have also raised the issue of the four controversial labour codes which are alleged in favour of big corporates. Mandaviya has agreed to hold further discussions on the issue. The joint platform of the ten CTUs has also submitted a detailed memorandum to Mandaviya.

In the 17-point memorandum of the platform of 10 CTUs, Indian Labour Conference (ILC) meet was demanded which did not take place in the last 9 years since 2015, though it is the highest tripartite body in the country on labour and employment issues. All the changes in labour laws and codification of 29 central laws were pursued without passing through ILC. Code on wages was passed in 2019 itself without any democratic exercise. Three codes were introduced when the nation was grappling with Covid virus and the workers were among the worst victims. On top of that, whole opposition was on boycott in both the houses, so no discussions happened on labour codes in Parliament as well. It was treasury bench proposing Bill on
Codes and they themselves adopting these. CTUs demanded scraping of the four labour codes.

CTUs raised the issue of workplace safety and compensation. Since most of the workers are contract workers they don’t get properly compensated and their families struggle for survival. They demanded regular inspection for workplace safety measures and implementation of ILO conventions in this regard.

The platform of CTUs demanded immediate halt to privatization of PSUs. They said that National Monetisation Pipeline Scheme (NMP) is just another instrument to sell national assets to the chosen
corporates, and hence they demanded it to be scrapped. We want immediate halt to privatization of Indian Railways, Road Transport, Coal and other mines, Port and Dock, Defence, Electricity, Postal, Telecom, Banks
and insurance sector in the national interest.

The platform of CTUs also demanded roll back of the corporatization of Ordnance factories, Rs 26000 per month minimum wage, constitution of 8th pay commission at the earliest, withdrawal of fixed term
employment, recruitment of vacant or lapsed posts in government, creation of new job as government
priority to address unprecedented level of unemployment, and scrapping of Agnipath scheme.

The joint memorandum said that New Education Policy was meant to encourage commercialization of
education which would make it unaffordable for poor, lower and even middle income groups. The children of workers, especially in the informal economy will be deprived of education as a result.

CTUs demanded pension as a right to all senior citizens in addition to the demand of restoration of non-contributory Old Pension scheme. They also demanded social security schemes for all workers and giving
worker status to scheme workers such as Anganwadi, Asha, Mid-day meal, Asha Kiran etc. and ESIC coverage to them. A national policy on migrant workers and an employment guarantee scheme in urban areas like MGNREGA in rural areas are also demanded.