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December 2020

On the midnight of 14th August 1947, in his speech to the Constituent assembly, Nehru said:

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom ...

… The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.”

The Planning Commission was set up in 1950 to raise the standard of living of all by efficiently exploiting the country’s material and human resources, boosting production, and creating employment opportunities for all. Along with this came the inspectorates that were meant to regulate the workplace, including the private sector, with strong deterrents, to fight and end poverty and to bring freedom and opportunity to the peasants and workers of India. These regulatory institutions that Nehru envisioned became the monsters of the 1990s.

Slaying the Monster – Ending Inspector Raj

The New Industrial Policy of 1991 drafted by finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh under the Prime Ministership of P V Narasimha Rao ushered in the first wave of comprehensive changes in economic regulation in the country that went on to be termed as the LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) package. It widened the role of the private sector (or limited the role of Public sector

through divestment), eased foreign investment, and abolished industrial licensing in most sectors. Thus began the journey of dismantling every institution that aimed to build “...a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation”.

Successive governments since the 1990 irrespective of their political affiliation have devoted their time in office in advancing this agenda and as a consequence today India's richest 1 per cent holds more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people, who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country's population. And the top 10 per cent of the population holds over 74% of the total national wealth. India’s Gini coefficient went up from 0.43 in 1995–96 to 0.832 in 2020. Gini coefficient is a statistical measure to represent income inequality within a country. When the Gini coefficient is 0 (zero), it represents perfect equality, where every person has equal income. Conversely, a Gini coefficient of 1 (one) represents maximum inequality – where one person holds the wealth of the entire country. The closer we move to 1, our country tends to be more unequal with a small number of extremely rich people and a huge impoverished population. So what we can see from the figures is that in the period from 1995 to 2020, as the country has been more deregulated and liberalised, inequality has soared.

For the first four decades after independence, the private sector lobbied and struggled to get rid of the regulatory mechanisms to earn unbridled profits at the cost of people who produced it. The LPG package of 1991 created this opportunity but one thorn remained for employers – strict labour laws protecting worker rights. Strong trade unions and fear of mass upsurge prevented successive governments from dismantling the labour laws.

Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions – Decoded (Part III)

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Riding high on mass popular wave, one of the first step that the Narendra Modi government took was to disband the Planning Commission and then followed it by launching their Ease of Doing Business programme with labour law reform at its core. What Manmohan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao began but failed to do, the Narendra Modi government completed. The Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions has replaced Labour inspectors by Labour inspectors-cum- facilitators thereby slaying the last monster of the Nehruvian era.

Facilitating Ease of Business

The International Labour Organaisation (ILO) passed its Labour Inspection Convention (C081) in 1947 but it came into effect in 1949 with India being one among the 7 countries that ratified it that year. The Convention requires the ratifying member countries to maintain a system of labour inspection in industrial workplaces that will:

i. secure the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work, such as provisions relating to hours, wages, safety, health and welfare, the employment of children and young persons, and other connected matters, in so far as such provisions are enforceable by labour inspectors;

ii. supply technical information and advice to employers and workers concerning the most effective means of complying with the legal provisions;

iii. bring to the notice of the competent authority defects or abuses not specifically covered by existing legal provisions.

The convention also requires inspection staff to be public officials whose status and conditions of service are such that they are assured of stability of employment and are independent of changes of government and of improper external influences to ensure their autonomy. And most importantly, the convention specifies the power of the inspector:

i. to interrogate, alone or in the presence of witnesses, the employer or the staff of the

undertaking on any matters concerning the application of the legal provisions;

ii. to require the production of any books, registers or other documents the keeping of which is prescribed by national laws or regulations relating to conditions of work, in order to see that they are in conformity with the legal provisions, and to copy such documents or make extracts from them;

iii. to enforce the posting of notices required by the legal provisions;

iv. to take or remove for purposes of analysis samples of materials and substances used or handled, subject to the employer or his representative being notified of any samples or substances taken or removed for such purpose.

The Code on OSH not just changed the name of the inspector – it ripped all powers from

the inspectorate and left it toothless.

Thus the role of the inspector has been restructured and redefined from being a regulatory institution to uphold labour laws in order to ensure a balance of power between labour and capital to that which facilitates ease of business at the expense of labour rights.

This is however only the first step towards the total dismantling of the regulatory system. The introduction of self certification and private audit is the way towards privatisation of the regulatory function of government.

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The new codes allow employers of start-up companies and any other enterprises as may be notified by government, state or central, to opt for third party audit and certification for compliance to labour codes which then can be filed to the Inspector cum facilitator. This creates a parallel private mechanism of regulation. This compliance certification process cannot be independent and unbiased as the enterprise seeking the certification has the right to choose the agency and will pay for it, unlike in the case of the labour inspectorate. This, thus, paves the path for profit-making privatised institutional corruption to eliminate the so-called Inspector Raj, an institution that allowed individual corruption.

Government of the People, By the People

The present government is definitely of the people and by the people given the overwhelming support it won from a majority of voters. It enjoys our mandate and our confidence. With this mandate behind them, the government has rolled out the 4 labour codes that will amidst the raging pandemic that will skew the balance of power forever between capital and labour. The labour codes favour big capital while pauperising the working people. To go back to the data on inequality, with India (with a Gini coefficient of 0.83) inching towards a perfectly unequal society, the labour codes are a sure prescription towards this. Whatever it may be, this government is certainly not For the People.

Policy News

Parliamentary panel calls for tracking movement of migrant workers for better relief disbursement

22 December 2020: The parliamentary panel on home affairs has put out a report titled Management of covid-19 pandemic and related issues, recommending that the Central government create a national database of migrant workers and set up a mechanism to track and monitor the movement of migrant workers throughout the country in real-time to improve disbursal of ration/supplies and other basic relief measures. The report recommends that the ministry of home affairs should

coordinate with the concerned central ministries and the governments of states and Union Territories so that they can offtake the required rations/supplies from the central board, FCI (Food Corporation of India) godowns accordingly, without any delay.

Ministry of Labour notifies provisions regarding constitution of Central Advisory Board under Code of Wages

21 December 2020: The Ministry of Labour and Employment has notified provisions for the constitution of a Central Advisory Board under the Code on Wages which will consist of the representatives of employers and employees, independent persons, and five representatives of State governments which will be appointed by the central government. One-third of the members are to be women and a member will be appointed as the chairperson of the board by the central government. The Board will advise the Centre on issues relating to the fixation or revision of minimum wages and other matters related to the Wage Code, however, it will regulate its own procedures including those of the committees and sub-committees.

Niti Aayog aims to increase private companies’ role in India’s health surveillance

14 December 2020: In a white paper published on Vision 2035, Niti Aayog has recommended enhancing private sector involvement in public health surveillance given the minimal involvement of private companies in disease surveillance at present. It stated that institutions will have to be tasked and funded in order to ensure continuous quality improvement, but it didn’t address questions regarding how different circumstances, diseases and levels of care will determine profitable private sector involvement.

Meghalaya: Government promulgates law to restrict entry of migrant workers in the state

07 December 2020: The Meghalaya Cabinet approved the draft rules of the Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers Rule 2020 aiming to regulate the unbridled entry of migrant labourers. As per the draft rules, every migrant worker will have to register himself/herself and obtain a separate

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registration card which will be valid for up to 179 days. Additionally, each person engaging or employing any migrant worker will be held responsible for their registration as per the new Act and its component rules, the violation of which will be punishable by fine.

Legal News

Delhi government to withdraw FIRs against migrant workers lodged during lockdown

22 December 2020: The state government of Delhi issued instructions to the Home department to withdraw all FIRs/complaints which were lodged against migrant workers during the lockdown. The cases were registered by the police when thousands of migrant workers violated prohibitory orders inorder to leave Delhi for their home states during the initial weeks of the lockdown announced on March 24.

NHRC pulls up government over delays in providing relief to sex workers

19 December 2020: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought a reply from the Delhi government regarding the delay in finalisation of the policy related to the prevention of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children in the national capital. The government’s reply stated that due to Covid-19 the final policy document was yet to be placed before the State-level Coordination Committee for its approval. The original petition had alleged that human rights violations had been continuing in the red light area of Delhi where minor girls were still being trafficked into on a regular basis.

Delhi High Court: Issues notice to Labour Ministry over pending back wages to bonded labour victims

16 December 2020: The Delhi High Court issued notice to the Ministry of Labour and Employment and others to expeditiously recover the long-pending back wages of the child of the petitioner and 115 other victims of bonded labour in the national capital where the proceedings for recovery of back wages have been initiated. It has also instructed the

respondent authorities to initiate the recovery proceedings in cases where recovery, till date, has not been initiated.

Telangana: Labour department initiates action against 54 companies for denying workers leave on voting day in Telangana state

02 December 2020: The Office of the Joint Commissioner of Labour (Twin Cities) has booked 54 establishments for not giving their employees the opportunity to leave work and vote in the Greater Hyderabad Municipality Corporation (GHMC) election by not declaring a holiday on December 1 and not even giving employees a few hours leeway to vote and come back to work. The said establishments will be prosecuted before the Metropolitan Magistrate at Nampally, where a penalty will be charged based on the court’s decision. The offenders’ list includes some popular establishments like Health and Glow, Spencers, Max showroom, Lenskart, Reliance Retail, Bata, Westside and Unlimited.

Collective Bargaining

Air India staff protest pay cut, demand continuation of medical benefits and payment of arrears before privatisation

27 December 2020: Air India Staff are protesting against unfair pay cuts, and demanding continuation of medical benefits and payment of arrears before privatisation of the company takes place. The pilots’ union has asked their members not to undertake extra duties and to refuse to operate flights exceeding their duty time. The employees’ union has sought a meeting with the Civil Aviation Minister on issues such as payment of arrears, leave encashment, and continuation of medical benefits. They also demand the continuation of welfare measures such as housing, transport, and canteens after privatisation.

Andhra Pradesh: Kadapa farmers go on strike against UCIL’s uranium mining plant expansion

17 December 2020: Farmers in Vemula Mandal of Kadapa district have gone on an indefinite

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strike opposing the expansion of UCIL’s uranium mining plant. The protestors have put a charter of eight demands including immediate employment, rehabilitation and compensation etc. Farmers say that UCIL did not honour their contract of providing employment, fair compensation and rehabilitation, which it had assured them in 2006. Further, locals and activists protesting the UCIL’s expansion allege that the  chemical sludge is directly being released into the ground, affecting health and destroying agriculture in the region.

Karnataka: State Transport employees’ strike forces government to accept their demands

14 December 2020: Karnataka State Transport Minister was forced to agree to almost all demands of the striking transport employees, except for their demand to be recognised as state government employees. Transport employees of all four State Road Transport Corporations – KSRTC, NEKRTC, NWRTC and BMTC – had gone on a state-wide flash strike on 11 December with a charter of 10 demands. The protest was called off after the government agreed to hike salaries in accordance with the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations, withdrawal of not-issued-not-collected cases against conductors, reduction of training period for new employees to one year from two years, to have a policy on inter corporation transfers, Arogya Bhagya health insurance cover for all employees, Rs 30 lakh ex-gratia for the families of those who succumbed to Covid-19, setting up of a committee to address the complaints about harassment by higher officials, and introduction of Human Resources Management System (HRMS) in the HR department.

Maharashtra: Mathadi workers (head-loaders) across the state went on strike demanding fulfilment of various pending demands

11 December 2020: Thousands of Mathadi workers (head-loaders) across Maharashtra went on a one-day strike to put pressure on the State government to fulfil their long-pending demands such as the reformation of Mathadi Boards, providing jobs to mathadi workers’ children and appointing a full-time chairman and secretary to the Mathadi Boards. They also

demanded the status of essential workers as thousands of mathadi workers had continued to work throughout the pandemic but the government provided them no support. The strike crippled APMCs across the state which led to the state assembly discussing these issues on 24 December.

Jharkhand: Sanitation workers of Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) go on indefinite strike demanding restoration of ESI facility

04 December 2020: Contract workers working in sanitation at the Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) went on indefinite strike demanding restoration of their ESI facility which had been suspended for months as their contractors hadn’t paid them their ESI, PF, Earned Leave and bonuses for the past four months. Additionally, even after knowing about these issues of non-payment by the contractors, the BGH management had paid and cleared the contractor’s bills. Multiple reminders and warnings by the workers had failed in getting the management to adequately address their grievances. The immediate trigger for the call was when a few workers and their families started facing difficulty in getting better treatment for serious illnesses due to the lack of ESI facility.

Workplace Safety Watch

03 December: Ramesh Kumar (35) died after a wall collapsed at a pumping station of HPCL in Visakhapatnam due to heavy water seepage. Police have registered a case of accidental death.

05 December: Bagyanathan (48) a Tangedco wireman and a contract worker Dayalan (38) died of electrocution while attending to an electricity fault in the Injambakkam area of Kancheepuram.

07 December: Chintu (22) and Kotesh (25) died of asphyxiation while constructing a sump at an under-construction building in Hyderabad's Asif Nagar. Family members and co-workers demanded compensation, the police has registered a case under section 174 (suspicious death) of the CrPC.

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09 December: Prem Ananta Bhoir (24) and Akshay Ashok Gautam (21) died and four others were severely injured in a nitrogen cylinder explosion at JE Mechanical factory in Thane.

15 December: Jyoti Sahu died and 5 others were injured after the porch of an under-construction private hospital building collapsed in Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.

19 December: Saina (36), Guddi (45), Twinkle (25) and Ramesh (35) died and two others were injured in a factory roof collapse in West Delhi’s Khayala that housed a motor-winding unit. Police registered a case of death by negligence and the factory owner, Mahender Pal, who also owns the building, has been arrested. South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) officials said the factory had been running illegally and consequently they suspended the licence inspector.

21 December: Rambabu (50) died at an under-construction site at a private school in Gandhi Nagar police station area after a portion of mud caved in. Police registered a case of death due to negligence against the contractor responsible for completing the construction work.

22 December: Two IFFCO officials VP Singh and Abhyanandan Kumar died and 16 other employees fell sick after a major Ammonia gas leak at IFFCO’s Phulpur plant near Allahabad. State government has launched an investigation and announced Rs. 4 lakh compensation each to the families of the victims.

26 December: Yugal Kishore (50) died of asphyxiation after a fire broke out in a mask manufacturing factory in Mayapuri industrial area in Delhi.

2020 – its Finally Over!

The year 2020 may have gone by but it is far from over. This year is going to leave its imprint and will be remembered for several reasons. Of course most of it is attributed to the Novel Coronavirus 2019 or COVID-19 as we popularly know it. It has so far claimed over 18.4 lakh lives worldwide and over 8.5 crore people are still affected. It has drastically changed our society,

our lives, and how we know the world of work.

Most countries failed to contain the impact of the pandemic, given their more or less identical response to it in the form of ill-planned and badly implemented abrupt lockdowns which led to immense suffering of the working people. The lockdown threw people out of their jobs and pushed them towards pauperisation and starvation. Immigrants were stranded across the world without jobs, without protection, unable to go home.

Indian government announced a complete lockdown on 23 March 2020 without any prior warning, all forms of gatherings and travel were criminalised and public transport services were discontinued overnight. The state took no responsibility of the people who were left jobless and starving pushing them to walk long distances to return to their villages from the towns where they worked. They faced police brutality, criminal cases were lodged against them and they were forcibly returned to the urban centres they had painfully walked hundreds of kilometres to escape.

The government however found opportunity in crisis while people died of hunger and disease. It passed 4 Labour Codes and 3 Farm Laws which were passed with no debate and with no opposition present in the house. Trade unions and farmers’ organisations have since been protesting across the country for their repeal.

Government response to COVID 19 has been similar across the globe. In many countries, including across Europe, starvation and joblessness pushed people to take to the streets, where they were met with police brutality. Governments also shut down courts and passed temporary laws that granted arbitrary powers to the police - Israel shut its court, Germany, Poland and Italy gave specials

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powers to the police to keep people locked in.

The year of Protests – the year of Repression

Major protests broke out in Belarus, Mexico, Tunisia and USA against police violence. In Belarus, a general strike of workers brought the country to a standstill demanding the resignation of the president and a free and fair election.

The brutal murder of a 46 year old black man, George Floyd, by a Minneapolis police ignited massive protests under the slogan of Black Lives Matter across the US. Protestors demanded slashing of police funding, an end to immunity to police officers for violation of human rights, racial profiling and surveillance. This protest found support in the UK, France and many other countries.

The Year of Surveillance

The global pandemic offered governments and corporations a free hand to scale up their surveillance machinery against working people. While governments promoted it under the guise of containing the virus through contact tracing, corporations had a free run in the name of Work From Home (WFH). Employers used WFH tactfully to blur the lines of working hours and made people work overtime without any overtime pay. As work moved online it became easier for companies to spy on their employees. Companies bought and sold data about their workers and people at large. Corporations across the world milked the ‘opportunity in disaster’ and began a process of drastic restructuring while workers struggled to survive. Firing workers at will in the name of ‘streamlining’ the supply chain or ‘restructuring’ of processes has become a norm. The total number of jobs lost during 2020 is impossible to

ascertain, with women and young workers being more affected than others. According to the ILO, the pandemic wiped out some 81 million jobs in the Asia- Pacific region alone.

The Year of Gig work

Airlines, travel and hospitality and fast fashion industry saw the sharpest decline and largest job cuts. Ban on flying and travel forced workers in aviation and tourism industry out of jobs. Airline companies and hotel chains laid off a large number of contract workers and pushed wage cuts on others. Contract teachers and support staff at educational institutions met a similar fate. Those who were able to retain their jobs found themselves overworked and exhausted as they struggled with internet based classrooms and exams. Lack of connectivity, devices and educational material among students hailing from marginalised communities and poor economic background widened the gap public school teachers have been struggling to bridge for long. Women yet again lost out the most. The double burden of household chores, care work and sustaining a job has affected their growth severely.

As people took a break from excessive buying due to the lockdown and job and income loss resulting from it, our economy which thrives on a use and throw consumption received a major blow. The fast fashion industry bore the brunt of it as people limited their spendings to essentials. The garment and footwear supply chain is still grappling with the impact of the lockdown.

The shuttering down of marketplaces however led to an increase in delivery jobs, a market which has been monopolised by companies which work through mobile technology and skirt all labour laws by wrongly classifying their workers as ‘independent contactors’ or self-employed people. Amazon, Deliveroo, DoorDash, Swiggy, Zomato etc., saw an unprecedented demand and thereby soaring profits. However, their profits did not trickle down to the workers, instead it led to a rise in jobs with fixed term contracts or gig work with no income or social security. State of California in USA tried putting a leash on the profiteering companies but failed. A coalition of tech companies formed a fund of over US$200

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Million to fight the legislation. While Amazon advertised for hiring ‘professionals’ adept at union busting. Delivery workers unionised and protested for better pay and working conditions across several countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Thailand and USA.

The Invisible Workers

As the number of COVID infected people grew, the situation worsened and it became clearer that the existing economic system geared towards amassing profits through mindless consumption and the political structure which supports it are working against people’s interest.

Health care workers, sanitation workers, domestic workers, transport workers, mail and post workers and other people who risked their life everyday to ensure that we do not lose this battle against the virus remain the worse affected lot amongst working people. Healthcare workers not only had to survive inhumane working hours, they had to put up a battle against government apathy which denied them basic Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), a decent wage and in some cases even misinformation being spread by elected government leaders.

Sanitation workers, care givers, domestic workers and transport workers whose work was considered unimportant and who had been kept invisible up until now became visible and took centre stage. They demanded PPEs, regular jobs with better wages and fixed working conditions. However, their movement to gain workers’ rights were crushed by the judiciary. Canada, India, Kenya, USA and Zimbabwe are some such examples where Courts intervened declared workers’ strikes illegal, ordered them back to work or face jail term.

2020 may have brought upon us several unprecedented challenges but it has also exposed the rotten political and economic system that we are currently living in. It has exposed that privatisation of public resources like health care, education, public transport etc., only benefits a handful of rich to become richer. It has told us that if we come together we can change this system. In Chile when hungry people took to streets the government had to kneel down and strengthen the public food distribution system. Spain nationalised all its private hospitals and returned to a universal healthcare system. Portugal and Greece promulgated ordinances to treat all immigrants at par with document bearing citizens with equal rights and put a hold on repatriating immigrants.

People’s united struggle made all this and much more a reality. As capital sharpens its attack against working people, let us struggle for our dream of a different world.

Published by: Centre for Workers' Management | Web: http://cwm.org.in | Phone: 011 46524333