New Delhi: The RSS affiliate trade union Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh has yet again raised its demand to amend labor codes. The trade union body wrote to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Friday demanding his intervention in the issue.
The four labor codes were proposed by the government to rationalize 44 central codes in the year 2019. These are Wage Code, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, Social Security Code, and Industrial Relations Code.
After being passed in 2020, the codes were scheduled to be implemented by April 2021 but it has continuously been delayed due to some reasons. One of the prime reasons is that labor comes in the concurrent list, thus both state and the Centre have to notify rules under the codes so that they could be converted and implemented as laws. As per current information, some states are yet to notify rules under the codes and that is the major reason behind the codes not being implemented.
The other reason is resistance from trade unions. Left-backed central trade unions have been agitating against the new labor codes ever since they were proposed. The conglomerate of central trade unions which include unions like CITU, INTUC, AITUC had also called for a two-day general strike against these labor codes during the budget session of parliament but they later deferred their call to March 28 and 29.
The unions under CITU are demanding the repeal of these codes. Amid high resistance and a series of protests against the proposed codes, the government has the support of the RSS affiliate Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh but only with some terms and conditions.
The BMS too has objections to certain provisions of the four codes, however, the labor body is only demanding amendments and not the complete repeal of the codes. "Codification and simplification of labor laws was a long pending demand of various trade unions. There are several provisions in the codes that are beneficial to workers but there are some provisions that are against workers. Hence, removal of anti-worker provisions by an amendment in the labor codes has been demanded by BMS so that the other beneficial provisions can be implemented at the earliest," said Binoy Kumar Sinha, General Secretary Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh.
However, the labor unions like the Center for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), LPF and etc call the new codes completely anti-labor and demand nothing less than complete repeal for the four labor codes.
The government so far has not shown any hurry in the implementation due to year-long farmers' agitation against the three farm laws after which the government had to face major set back and finally repeal the laws.
The trade unions protesting against the labor codes had supported the farmer's agitation and thus gathered their support in the protest against labor codes as well. After the call of all India general strike on March 28 and 29, the Left affiliate trade unions are planning to intensify their movement against the labor codes.
The Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh has not been participating in the protest calls by Left-backed organizations but has from time to time organized their own. Mazdoor Sangh has also been writing to the government demanding important amendments.
In their letter to the Vice President, BMS has mentioned the benefits as well as the adverse provisions in the labor codes and demanded necessary amendments.
