More unions needed in forum with industry

A joint platform of workers and corporate executives, Industry-Trade Union Dialogue Forum, could pave the way for a healthy dialogue on key industrial relations issues at a time when the government has initiated the process of a major overhaul of labour laws.

Though the first venture of such a forum turned out to be somewhat successful with both sides submitting their proposed ‘framework on fixed-term employment’ to the labour and employment ministry last year, all unions are yet to embrace the platform. The proposed framework became a starting point for the government to bring back an old law on ‘fixed-term employment’ that was struck down a few years ago due to strong opposition from trade unions.

Recently, the Centre notified rules to allow industries to hire workers on fixed-term contracts with such workers receiving all statutory benefits that permanent workers are entitled to. It allows industries to employ workers for short assignments and terminate their services once the projects are completed, without the need for serving a notice at the end of their job tenure.

Two of the largest trade unions — the RSSbacked Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Congress-affiliated Indian Trade Union Congress (Intuc) — were a part of the meetings organised by the forum and helped in framing a blueprint for fixed-term employment. The forum submitted a recommendation for introduction of fixedterm employment to the government but the proposed framework was not accepted in toto.

Though the Left-affiliated unions, including the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) and All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc), were also part of this group, their leaders skipped most of the meetings on fixed-term employment, opposing the move to replace permanent jobs with contractual ones. From the corporate side, its members include executives of the Tata group, Indian Oil, Mahindra & Mahindra and representatives of various industrial bodies.

“The best industrial relations are established when you get to know each other. The government’s role is to frame policies but for that the bilateral relation between unions and industry has to be strong,” the Industry-Trade Union Dialogue Forum’s convenor Pradeep Bhargava, president, Employers’ Federation of India, said.

The forum was established following efforts by the erstwhile Planning Commission to set up a platform for dialogue between industry and workers in the aftermath of violence at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant in July 2012 that claimed the life of one of the carmaker’s senior executives.

The forum met to discuss some issues related to contract workers and recognition of trade unions during the UPA regime, but due to a change in the government at the Centre in May 2014, not much changed. The Planning Commission, which was mentoring the forum, was replaced by Niti Aayog. Arun Maira, former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission, is a counsellor of the forum.

However, the forum is yet to bring the Leftaffiliated unions on board which chose not to participate in meetings to discuss fixed-term employment. “I attended one meeting initially but then I decided not to go as I found it to be an employer-centric platform,” CITU general-secretary Tapan Sen said.

Intuc President G Sanjeeva Reddy denied attending the meetings on fixed-term employment, saying the union was against the idea of such contracts.

However, industry executives said representatives of both the BMS and Intuc attended all the meetings. Only the Left-affiliated unions did not attend after initial rounds of discussion,” the executive added.

BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay emphasised on the importance of dialogue between labour unions and industry.

The forum is set to meet in June to discuss the issue of providing social security to all workers.

The proposed framework became a starting point for the govt to bring back a law on ‘fixed-term employment’