Not to sanction any kind of leave including Casual Leave, if applied for, during the period of proposed agitation / strike.

Government of India
Ministry of Railways
(Railway Board)

No. 2019/E(LR)II/1/10

New Delhi, dated: 30.12.2019

The General Managers
All Indian Railways &
Production Units &
Metro Railway, Kolkata.

(Attn: PCPOs)

Sub.: (i) Holding of “Protest Week” from 2nd to 7th January, 2020 by All Indian Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) and its affiliated Unions.

(ii) Agitation by National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) and its affiliated Unions.

It has come to notice that AIRF have decided to observe ‘Protest Week’ from 2nd to 7th January, 2020 by holding Dharnas, Demonstrations, Protest Rallies, Gate Meetings, etc. at their Branch level all over Indian Railways. This is to protest against alleged arbitrary decisions of the Ministry of Railways. Further, they have also decided to fully support one day General Strike of the Central Trade Unions to be held on 8th January, 2020.

The other Federation viz. NFIR have also decided to get ready for launching agitation to protest against alleged wrong decisions taken by the Government. However, no dates of the proposed agitation have been confirmed.

Also check: Expected DA January 2020

Therefore, in view of aforesaid developments, there should not be any room for complacency on the part of the Railway administrations and all necessary stringent steps must be taken to ensure discipline and smooth functioning of Railways. It must be ensured that Railway Servants need to seek necessary permissions from the Competent Authority on their respective Railways/Production Units to leave their headquarters.

Railway Servants’ particular attention should be drawn to relevant penal provisions i.e. Section 173, 174 and 175 of the Railways Act, 1989 which are attracted in cases of abandoning train without authority, obstructing running of train and endangering the safety of persons by disobeying rules etc.

Instructions may be issued not to sanction any kind of leave including Casual Leave, if applied for, during the period of proposed agitation / strike.

(R.K.Sinha)
Director Estt(IR)
Railway Board

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Hemalata

The country wide general strike on 2nd September this year was even bigger and more widespread than that held on the same day last year, as initial reports from all over the country suggest. The country wide general strike this year too was held on the same 12 point charter of demands. The central trade unions claimed a participation of 15 crore workers in the strike last year. The impact of the strike this year was so huge that even before the trade unions made any claims, the electronic media reported that 18 crore workers participated in the strike.

This gives big rebuff to the claims made by the government that it was working for the benefit of the workers and for providing them social security benefits. It is also significant that the BMS, which withdrew from the strike in the last minute in 2015, did not join the strike call this year at all. Besides, the BJP led government used everything within its capacity to create confusion among the workers and sabotage the strike. The BMS became a willing ally of the government in these efforts, declaring that it was ‘withdrawing’ from a strike that it has never called, but also claiming ‘historic victory’ for the workers. All these were nothing but manoeuvres by the BJP and the BMS, both members of the same parivar headed by the RSS to deceive the workers in their efforts to serve their corporate masters. The corporate media, particularly the electronic media, as usual, aired these false claims and added their might to the misinformation campaign.

But the working class of the country refused to be deceived. As the reports show, despite the call of the BMS leadership to organise ‘victory rallies and meetings’, BMS members were not willing to oppose the strike. In fact, in several places they joined the strike. Workers who were not organised into any unions, who joined the strike last year, as in Pune industrial area, joined the strike this time too. In several places the strike spread to newer areas encompassing newer sections of workers. In many states, not only the states that are traditional strongholds of trade unions, but in many others, the strike turned into a bandh. This was mainly due to the massive participation of the road transport workers as a result of which life in these states came to a standstill. In many districts of Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab wore a bandh like look. Despite the attempts by the TMC government in West Bengal to suppress the strike by issuing warnings and threats to the workers, state transport buses in the state plied empty and a bandh like situation prevailed in almost all the districts. In Kerala and Tripura, as always, strike turned into a bandh.

The anger of the workers against the policies of the government was visible in many ways. Around 70000 anganwadi employees and ASHAs, most of them who were not members of any union joined the strike in Gujarat. Thousands of them participated in the demonstrations held at the district headquarters in many districts. All the workers in the minor ports of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Gangavaram and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh joined the strike. These workers are not members of any of the central trade unions that called the strike. Similarly in many industrial clusters across the country, thousands of workers, who are not members of any union, joined the strike.

While there were a few areas like the port sector where the strike was not as good as the last time, and a few districts where the strike in the road transport sector was not as effective as last year, overall the strike was observed in many more industrial clusters and sectors and many newer sections of workers joined it.

It was not only the misinformation and misleading campaign of the government with its huge advertisements in the media aided and abetted by the BMS that the workers confronted. In several states they were subjected to victimisation, police repression and physical attacks. In Haryana 22 leaders of road transport workers’ union were arrested and the striking workers were lathi charged; police went to the residential areas where contract workers lived and coerced them to join duties. Several coal workers in Jharkhand were suspended for joining the strike. The police conducted a flag march to intimidate workers and also lathi charged workers standing peacefully near a theatre in Noida. In West Bengal CITU leader and former MP Suraj Pathak and many CITU leaders were arrested. TMC goons attacked the workers and their supporters, including women, participating in the rallies. Around 5000 workers were arrested in different parts of Assam.

The extent of the strike and the support it received could be gauged from the reports that were available till the evening of 2nd September though comprehensive reports from all the states and sectors are yet to come. In several states local state level unions joined the strike. In Telangana, the TRS affiliated union joined the strike; the TNTUC belonging to the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh supported the strike in Telangana. Even in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, though TNTUC opposed the strike, workers belonging to it joined the strike. In Odisha the chief minister himself expressed his support to the strike when the trade union leaders met him. The Left parties openly supported the strike. Even while the BMS was not part of the strike and BMS leadership directed its members to observe ‘victory rallies’, local units of the BMS were not in a position to oppose the strike; in several states BMS members joined the strike.

Overwhelming majority of bank and insurance employees all over the country joined the strike. State government employees in most of the states joined the strike. Particularly noteworthy is the participation of state government employees in the north eastern states including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya etc who participated in the strike for the first time. Participation of central government employees – of the income tax employees, postal employees in particular was massive. Defence employees in several defence production units joined the strike. BSNL employees all over the country joined the strike. The strike was near total in the coal sector. Overwhelming majority of contract workers in the public sector participated in the strike. Strike among medical and sales representatives was total in almost all the states.

Scheme workers including anganwadi employees, ASHAs, midday meal workers participated in the strike all over the country. Teaching and non teaching staff of National Child Labour Project joined the strike in Bihar, Maharashtra etc. Traditional sector workers like the plantation workers, cashew, coir, and fisheries workers participated in the strike in their lakhs. Unorganised workers in beedi, construction, head load workers, auto and rickshaw drivers, street vendors, domestic workers in several states joined the strike and also participated in the demonstrations, rasta roko and rail roko. Municipal and conservancy workers, panchayat workers, village chowkidars etc also joined the strike.

In Andhra Pradesh, strike was total in Vizag steel and DCI; around 70% of workers of permanent workers in the Vizag Shipyard participated in the strike. The TTD in the holy town of Tirupati was totally paralysed. Autos all over the state went on strike. Almost all the industrial clusters including the Renigunta industrial area were closed down. In several major cities truck owners associations participated in the strike. This along with the strike of the head load workers throughout the state brought all commercial transactions in the state to a standstill.

In Assam strike took the form of complete bandh in almost all districts seriously affecting public and private transport. No oil refinery in the state functioned. ONGC remained paralysed. More than 15 lakhs tea garden workers joined the strike. All public and private educational institutions remained closed. Railway transport was disrupted due to the rail roko by the unorganised workers, peasants, agricultural workers etc.

In Bihar too the strike was turned into bandh in many districts. Road transport including bus and tempo services was off the road. Workers in several industrial clusters went on strike.

Workers in almost all the major industrial areas in NCR Delh joined the strike. Massive joint demonstrations were held in several centres. The central demonstration was addressed by the national trade union leaders.

In Gujarat, an estimated 4 lakhs workers in 22 districts joined the strike and organised demonstrations in many districts.

Strike was highly successful in Haryana including in the Gurgaon, Manesar industrial areas. Workers in the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Hero Honda and other industrial units joined the strike and held demonstrations.

Demonstrations were held in Jammu region in support of the strike while Kashmir region continues to be under curfew. Thousands of workers from different sectors participated in the demonstrations

In Jharkhand strike was observed in industrial areas including in Jamshedpur that never participated in any strike till now. It was reported to be more massive than the strike in 2015.

An estimated 50 lakhs workers participated in the strike in Karnataka. Strike was total in the road transport sector and in all the major industries in Bengaluru and Mysore. 19 lakhs workers in the industrial clusters of Bengaluru joined the strike. Strike was total in both the units of Mico, L&T, Chenna metals, Toyota, ITC, Vikrant Tyres etc. In BEL in Bengaluru, the union affiliated to INTUC did not join the strike; despite this 80% of workers, 800 out of the total 1073 workers, more than the membership of the CITU affiliated union, joined the strike

The strike in transport sector in several cities and towns in Madhya Pradesh was total. Hamalis of agricultural mandis also participated affecting commercial transactions.

Strike was total in many private industrial areas in Maharashtra including the Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nasik, Mumbai, Solapur etc. Major industries like Ceat Ltd, Thysun Crupp, Sansonite India, Crompton Grieves, beer manufacturing units, pharma industries, liquor and textile industries were closed. Strike was total among beedi and power loom workers in Solapur.

Strike created a bandh like situation in Odisha. It was total among iron ore, manganese and coal mines workers and near total among the contract workers. Road transport including autos was totally paralysed.

Strike evoked massive response in Punjab with workers. Road transport was paralysed and industrial clusters remaining closed. Unorganised workers participated in the demonstrations in thousands.

The garment industry in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu witnessed total strike. Strike was also effective in the Coimbatore industrial area. It was total in Ashok Leyland, Ennore Foundries, Simpson Group of companies and all three factories of TI Group in Chennai. Workers in BHEL Trichy and Ranipet, ordinance factory in Nilgiris, defence production units in Avadi and Aravangadu were totally in strike. In Aravangadu, BMS members also joined the strike. Contract workers in Manali industrial belt MFL, ATC Tyres in Tirunelveli and TCL Lancer, in L&T, in Tyre machinery making Honey Well company went on strike.

There was bandh like situation in the state due to the total participation of road transport workers in the strike in Telangana. There was total strike in most of the public sector undertakings in the state. Strike was also total in most of the industrial clusters in and around Hyderabad. On the whole the strike was reported to be even more successful than last year

Strike was total in Udhampur industrial area of Uttarakhand and partial in that in Haridwar. It was also total in public road transport in the state but partial in private road transport.

In West Bengal, bandh like situation prevailed in many districts despite the threats and intimidation of the TMC government and its goons. Government ran buses without passengers in the morning but was compelled to withdraw later. Jute mills were closed. Commercial activities were nominal. Educational institutions in several districts were closed. Most of the tea gardens remained closed.

This strike, the seventeenth joint country wide general strike after the advent of neoliberal policies in the country, was preceded by joint campaign that was better organised and taken up to the block and in some states lower level to reach the workers. In addition, CITU prepared campaign material to make the workers aware of the issues and their relationship to the government policies. Booklets exposing government claims were also published which were translated into local languages. During the strike the lower level committees were regularly up dated with information exposing government claims. This has helped in preventing the workers from succumbing to the confusion sought to be created by the government and the BMS.

This country wide general strike will definitely be a mile stone in the working class struggles of the country.

Source: confederation

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31st August 2016

Central Trade Unions Reiterate countrywide General Strike on 2nd Sept, 2016 Group of Ministers (GOM) Announcement an eyewash

The Central Trade Unions reiterate the call for countrywide general strike on 2nd September 2016 against the anti-worker and anti-people policies of the Govt. in view of utterly unresponsive and undemocratic attitude of the Govt. The CTUs view the announcements made by Committee of Ministers as an eyewash and decide to go ahead with the Strike. Meagre raise in minimum wage to Rs.9100/- per month in central sphere is not binding on the States.

The CTUOs expressed dismay over utterly negative attitude of the Govt. towards basic demands of the workers on minimum wages as per consensus formulation of the Indian Labour Conference, on universal social security including pension for all workers including those in unorganised sector, against mass scale contractorisation of permanent and perennial work, against onslaught on basic rights of the workers through so called labour-law-reforms through various state governments and also by the centre in the background of large scale violation of labour laws being promoted by both the central govt and also many state govts, desperate move for privatisation/disinvestment of strategic and sensitive public sector units, and promoting limitless FDI in sensitive sectors like Defence, Railways, Banks, Insurance, Retail and Pharmaceuticals etc. which is also against the interest of the national economy.

The CTUOs made it clear that the desperate bid of the Govt for changing the labour laws both through central and many state govts is basically designed to throw even the overwhelming majority of the organised sector workers out of the coverage and purview of all basic labour laws which would render all other rights and benefits of the working people virtually meaningless.

The CTUOs also noted with dismay that the Govt while making public statement on being positive on the demands of the workers, has actually been actively pushing through executive measures, one after another, just in the opposite direction, against the interest of the working people in the grab of ensuring so called “else of doing business”. All these proactive initiatives militate against the basic interests and rights of the working people. Even the non-striking Central Trade Union also officially recorded its opposition.

The CTUOs expressed satisfaction over the increasing response by the workers throughout the country to the call for united action. The strike is going to be complete in industrial sectors such as transport, financial, power, coal, textile, automobile, port and dock, steel, oil, defence production, scheme, education etc. sectors and Central and State Govts. employees. In some states it is going to be bandh like situation.

It is unfortunate that during the past one year, the Group of Ministers appointed for discussion with the CTUOs on 12 point charter has not convened even a single meeting but has been only talking to BMS which has not joined the strike call. The CTUOs denounce such undemocratic bias of the Govt.

The CTUOs condemn the move of the central govt to divide the workers in the face of ongoing strike campaign and create confusion through making misleading statements on its so called positive attitude on workers’ demands both directly and through their various agencies and allies.

While expressing confidence that such dubious action to divide the workers will not succeed, the CTUOs appeal to the working people of the country irrespective of affiliations to further widen their unity and unitedly combat the anti-worker, anti-people policies of the Govt through making the call for countrywide general strike on 2nd September 2016 a total success.

AITIC
HMS
OIFU
AIUTUC
SEWA
AICCTU
UTUC
LPF

And independent federations of Workers/Employees.

Source http://confederationhq.blogspot.in

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By Subodh Varma, TNN

One of the key issues on which the negotiations between the government and the 10 central trade unions that had called for a general strike on Wednesday broke down was that of minimum wages. A labour ministry document circulated amongst the trade unions days before the strike, argued that by current norms, prices and calorific needs, Rs.6330 per month is the monthly wage adequate for an unskilled worker with a wife and two small children.

The trade unions and various other federations that represent 15 crore workers had demanded Rs.15,000 per month minimum wage as a national level floor wage. Striking a generous posture, the government modestly increased its proposal to Rs.7098 per month.

What the government had proposed was less than half of what was demanded. This was one of the contributory factors to the breakdown of negotiations. Other demands of the workers included social security coverage, non-interference with existing labour laws, etc.

How did the government calculate their proposal? A look at the fine print shows a slew of gross under-estimations and the use of an archaic formula first spelled out way back in 1957. Some of the food items’ prices are far from reality. For instance dal is costed at Rs.65 but only one of the various dals in the market – chana or gram dal – comes in this range. Arhar (tur) is Rs.135 per kg, urad is Rs.117.5, masur is Rs.95. All these current retail prices are from the consumer affairs ministry’s price monitoring data spanning 81 cities and towns.

Mutton is priced at a bizarre Rs.80 per kg, although it doesn’t really matter because only 50 g is allowed. This is convertible to 250 grams of vegetables which are priced at an imaginary Rs.16 per kg. In the real world mutton is selling at anywhere between Rs.300 to Rs.400 per kg. And rarely if any vegetable sells at Rs.16 per kg.

 But the real rub comes in the non-food items. Just Rs.390 is supposed to be spent on rent every month. And, fuel for cooking and utilities like electricity etc. are all supposed to be covered under a meagre Rs.780.

All education, medical expenses, marriages, care of elderly, recreation etc. is lumped together and costed at 25 percent of the food expenditure. This practice started after the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement in 1991 directed as much saying that if such a minimum wage cannot be guaranteed then the managements have no right to run their business. But even this works out to a mere Rs.980 per month.

Costs of education and healthcare have risen tremendously in the past several years and even one major episode of sickness in the family would be devastating. The government’s wage calculation seems to be blissfully unaware of this.

Recent government data shows that real wages, that is, after adjusting for inflation are dipping while the share of wages to profits is also dipping in the organized sector. In the unorganized sector which employs over 90 percent of India’s workforce, wages are abysmally low and conditions of work onerous. Small wonder then that the trade unions were unwilling to accept the government’s proposals.

Source : The Economic Times

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About 8 lakhs Central Government employees took part in the 48 hour (two day) general strike yesterday and today organised by the Indian working class as per the call of the Joint platform of 11 Central Trade Unions of the country. Besides 5 lakh Defence Civilian employees are also reported to have participated in this historic action.

The Strike was total and cent per cent in Income tax and Postal departments. The participation ranged from 60 to 90% in other Government of India organisations except in the Central Secretariat. As per the report, the strike was total in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and 60 to 70% in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and partial in other States.

In Delhi, the Income tax and RMS offices of the Postal Department virtually remained closed. Not a single employee reported for duty in these offices. Many offices of the Civil Accounts and Post offices in Delhi also did not function on these two days.

Many establishments of Printing and Stationery, Indian Bureau of Mines, Geological Survey of India, Medical Depots, Customs, Ground Water Board, ISRO, Directorate of Marketing Inspection, Civil Accounts, Central Public Works Department remained closed throughout the country on both the days.

The National Secretariat of the Confederation places on record its sincere gratitude and appreciation of the efforts undertaken by the State/Branch level leaders to make this historic action of the Indian working class a resounding success by eliciting the total participation of the Central Government employees. The success of the two days strike action will no doubt embolden the employees and workers to chalk out intensified action programme including indefinite strike action to compel the Govt. to rescind the anti-people economic policies pursued since 1991.

The post SUCCESS OF TWO-DAYS STRIKE BY Central Government EMPLOYEES ALONGWITH WORKING CLASS OF INDIA. appeared first on CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS.

MANOJ JOSHI
Joint Secretary (AT & Admn.)
Tel (011)2309 4276
Fax:(011)2309 2869

D.O. No. 33012/1(s)/2013-Estt-B

Dated the 15th February, 2013

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Joint Platform of Action of Government and Associate Services Employee’s Organizations — All India Committee has given a notice that the affiliated organizations of JPA and the mass of employees working in Government services throughout the country will boycott work and resort to various forms of protest action on two days Nationwide General strike on 20th & 21 st February, 2013 in pursuance of their Charter of Demands.

2. The instructions issued by the Department of Personnel & Training prohibit the Government servants from participating in any form of strike including mass casual leave, go-slow etc. or any action that abet any form of strike in violation of Rule 7 of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964. Besides, in accordance with the proviso to Rule 17 (1) of the Fundamental Rules, pay and allowances is not admissible to an employee for his absence from duty without any authority. As to the concomitant rights of an Association after it is formed, they cannot be different from the rights which can be claimed by the individual members of which the Association is composed. It follows that the right to form an Association does not include any guaranteed right to strike. There is no statutory provision empowering the employees to go on strike. The Supreme Court has also agreed in several judgments that going on a strike is a grave misconduct under the Conduct Rules and that misconduct by the Government employees is required to be dealt with in accordance with the law. Any employee going on strike in any form would face the consequences which, besides deduction of wages, may also include appropriate disciplinary action. In this connection, your kind attention is also drawn to this Department’s OM No. 33012/1(s)/2008-Estt (B) (pt) dated 12th September, 2008 (copy enclosed)

3. A Joint Consultative Machinery for Central Government employees’ is already functioning. This scheme has been introduced with the object of promoting harmonious relations and of securing the greatest measure of co-operation between the Government, in its capacity as employer, and the general body of its employees in matters of common concern, and with the object, further of increasing the efficiency of the public service. The JCM at the different levels have been discussing issues brought before it for consideration and either reaching amicable settlement or referring the matter to the Board of Arbitration in relation to pay and allowances, weekly hours of work and leave, whenever no amicable settlement could be reached in relation to these items.

4. The Central Government Employees under your Ministry/Departments may, therefore, be suitably informed of the aforesaid instructions under the Conduct Rules issued by this Department and other regulations upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court and dissuaded from resorting to strike in any form. You may also issue instructions not to sanction Casual Leave or other kind of leave to employees if
applied for, during the period of the proposed strike and ensure that the willing employees are allowed hindrance free entry into the office premises. For this purpose, Joint secretary (Admn) may be entrusted with the task of coordinating with security personnel. Suitable contingency plan may also be worked out to carry out the various functions of the Ministry/Department.

5. In case the employees go on strike, a report indicating the number of employees who took part in the proposed strike may be conveyed to this Department on the evening of the day.

Source: http://persmin.gov.in
(http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02est/Nationwide-General-15022013.pdf)

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The workers of the country are all set for the two days’ General Strike on February 20–21, 2013 called by the 11 Central Trade Unions for the first time after independence.

This is the fifteenth joint countrywide General Strike after the inception of the neoliberal policies. The strike has been called jointly by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) and other trade unions.

The independent federations of workers and employees too have joined the protest. More than 10 crores of workers are expected to participate in the General Strike.

The major demands raised by the trade unions in this strike are:

Price Rise

The trade unions have demanded concrete measures to arrest the spiralling prices, universalisation of the public distribution system and a complete ban on speculation and futures trading in the commodity market. They have categorically and unambiguously rejected the spurious arguments put forth by the government that prices were going up because of the increase in the Minimum Support Price to farmers and because people were consuming more.

In stead of taking effective measures to curtail price rise, the government has been taking policy measures that fuel price rise like deregulation of petrol and partial deregulation of diesel prices, electricity tariffs, reduction in fertiliser subsidy, reduction of subsidised cooking gas cylinders etc. It is taking measures that endanger food security.

Minimum Wages

Another important demand raised by the trade unions is the amendment to the Minimum Wages Act to ensure universal coverage by the Minimum Wages Act, irrespective of the schedules as per the recommendation of the 44th session of Indian Labour Conference and fixing of the statutory minimum wage at not less than Rs 10,000 per month.

Under the neoliberal regime, the share of wages in net value added has registered a sharp decline from 30% in late eighties to a mere 9.5% in 2009 while the share of profits has increased from 15% to 55% during the same period. Many sectors are not covered under the Minimum Wages Act. In addition, the Government of India and several state governments are resorting to the dubious method of employing millions of workers, large number of them women, calling them ‘social workers’, ‘activists’, ‘volunteers’, ‘friends’, ‘guests’ etc in the various ‘schemes’/ ‘programmes’ being implemented through their departments, just to deny them minimum wages and other benefits.

Universal social security for the unorganised sector workers

94% of the workforce in our country in the unorganised sector does not have any social security despite contributing more than 60% of the country’s GDP.

Most of the schemes made applicable to the unorganised workers under the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 are meant only for BPL category excluding majority of the unorganised sector workers due to the ridiculous income criteria fixed by the Planning Commission. No measures have been taken to ensure universal coverage of the Act and to guarantee floor level social security benefits within a specific time frame. The ‘Swavalamban’ scheme, is nothing but a crude attempt to utilise the hard earned money of the unorganised workers to boost up the share market and the profits of the foreign financial companies.

Against disinvestment

The central trade unions have strongly countered the government’s arguments in support of disinvestment – of expanding people’s ownership, mobilising resources for modernisation and for social sector expenditure as fraudulent. Disinvestment leads to cornering of public wealth by private corporates including multinational corporations, and private mutual funds.

Today, the PSUs have huge reserves and surpluses and are all carrying on their modernisation projects with their own resources besides contributing huge amounts to the exchequer by way of dividends and taxes.

The argument of mobilising resources for social security expenditure only indicates the government’s intention to abandon its responsibility to provide social security to its citizens. Disinvestment is nothing but an attempt to hand over huge national assets and natural resources to private corporates.

Employment

Employment protection is one of the major demands of the general strike. The huge tax concessions worth more than Rs 5 lakh crores to the corporates and the big business on an average every year during the last more than 5 years, have helped these corporates to tide over their crisis but have not resulted in employment generation.

According to the National Sample Survey (66th round) data, the annual rate of employment growth decelerated from 2.7% in 2000–05 to 0.8% in 2005-10. Growth of non-agricultural employment declined from 4.65% to 2.53% during the same period despite the high GDP growth of above 8%.

FDI in retail, displacement of lakhs of tribals, fishers and peasants from their land in the name of development are compounding the problem of unemployment.

Effective implementation of labour laws, equal wages and benefits to contract workers and stopping rampant contractorisation, pension for all etc are the other demands raised by the trade unions in this strike, which has evoked massive response from all sections of workers in the country.

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