New Delhi: RSS-aligned Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Tuesday demanded immediate withdrawal of anti-worker provisions in the labour codes and said it will hold a nationwide protest against the new laws on October 28. BMS has also planned to hold a long continuous agitation if the government does not give any heed to its demands which also includes general strike to protect workers' rights.
In a virtual press conference, BMS office bearers on Tuesday discussed the details of the resolutions passed in the 19th National conference of the union held virtually last week, wherein it decided to hold continuous all India agitation against the anti-worker provisions in the new labour codes. BMS has urged the government to call it and other trade unions immediately to discuss the anti-workers provisions in the labour codes.
The government has planned to implement all the four labour codes in one go by December. The Parliament in the Monsoon session had passed three labour code bills: the Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. The Wage Code Bill, 2019 was passed by the Parliament last year.
The labour ministry had circulated the draft rules on the Wage Code Bill last year but held back its finalisation and implementation. The ministry wanted to implement all the four codes and rules under those in one go as all of them are inter-linked. BMS in its national conference passed six resolutions. The conference has demanded "the government to immediately withdraw the anti-worker provisions in the new Labour Codes and to call a consultation meeting with BMS and other trade unions to make the Labour Codes beneficial to both workers and industry." Further, it has also resolved to hold country wide 'warning week' programs from October 10 to 16.
The union will also hold "nationwide protests on October 28 and if the government is not ready to hear the voice of workers, hold a long and continuous agitation thereafter including national level strikes to protect right to strike and other labour rights." The union has also demanded the government to call a round table of stakeholders and formulate a National Employment Policy. It stated, "the imported predatory economic and labour reforms and defective policies of the capitalist paradigm are responsible for landing our job generation in a sorry state of affairs." It also demanded the review of all pension schemes in favour of employees which included pension schemes under CCS (central civil services) Rules, NPS (national pension system), financial sector schemes, EPS (employees' pension scheme run by EPFO), UO (unorganised) sector etc.
BMS demanded pension which shall not be less than 50 per cent of salary linked to cost of living index and medical scheme and minimum pension of Rs 5,000 for unorganised sector. It also demanded effective changes in the law on migrant workers, national level registration, social security and other facilities.
BMS has also demanded the government to change the western GDP (gross domestic product) based faulty progress scale which is harmful to the environment and called for a country wide awareness drive on a Bharatiya based model. The National Conference elected Hiranmay Pandya (Baroda) as the National President and Binay Kumar Sinha (Patna) as National General Secretary of the BMS.
.
Comments
0 comment