CITU seeks all labour codes draft in Tamil

Centre of Indian Trade Unions state president A Soundara Rajan has demanded that all the draft rules of three labour codes released by the state government be published in Tamil for broader coverage and response from all corners while making 51 suggestions or objections on it.

After codifying the existing 29 labour laws into four labour codes, the state government on April 11 released draft rules initially for three codes - Wages, Industrial Relations and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions and sought suggestions or objections from stakeholders, Soundara Rajan said. He added that the CITU after a thorough discussion has formulated its response and submitted the same to the labour commissioner.

“CITU vehemently opposes several anti-worker provisions in the four labour codes, like the threshold for closure or retrenchment and applicability of standing orders increased to 300 from 100, the threshold for factory increased from 10 to 20, the threshold for applicability of contract labour provisions increased from 20 to 50 and several clauses which exclude the majority of workers from the provisions of this code,” the statement said.

It added that labour being a concurrent subject, the new codes take away several powers of the state government to frame rules in important matters such as welfare, safety and health provisions of workers which is against state autonomy.

The trade union insisted that the working hours should be only eight hours. “Spread over in a day should be fixed as 10 and half hours, instead of 12 hours,” it said. The number of safety officers to ensure safety should be increased to one officer for every 500 workers instead of one officer for every 2,000 workers, it demanded. It urged the state government to consider the application for registration of a trade union within 45 days. “If no action is taken within the stipulated time, the union should be deemed to have been registered,” it said.