The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
As PF protests end, politics begins over who led, gained
AS PROTESTS against the new, restrictive provident fund (PF) rules by workers of apparel manufacturing factories in Bengaluru subsided on Wednesday amid speculation that political forces fanned the agitation, the BJP’S city unit is trying to win over the workers with the message that the party’s local MP helped resolve the issue.
Following massive protests, primarily in Bengaluru since Monday,thecentrewithdrewthe notificationthathadtightenedthe rules for withdrawal of PF money.
On Wednesday, the factories remained closed in Bengaluru amid prohibitory orders issued by the police.
BJP posters around many factories, meanwhile, announced that the NDA government had rolledbackthenewpfnorms.the posters, which carried pictures of local BJP MLA Satish Reddy and party MP and Union minister H N Ananth Kumar, stated that the workers had been misled on the issue, and that the NDA government is with the workers. Some party posters also congratulated Ananth Kumar for purportedly helping resolve the issue.
Stating that garment businesses received notifications from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) about status quo on the withdrawal rules, a businessman from the sector said, “The matter has been resolved and we will open our factories on Thursday morning.”
On Monday and Tuesday, an estimated 1.25 lakh of the nearly 5 lakh workers in the apparel manufacturing sector had hit the streets. But representatives of central trade unions such as AITUC, CITU and INTUC said they were not “directly involved”, as garment factory workers are not usually unionised. “There are other small groups in the (individual) factories,” National Centre for Labour’s secretary M P Swamy said. CITU’S state unit general secretaryvjknairalsosaidhisunion was not “directly involved”.
Among the unions that worked with garment factory workers on the PF issue are Karnataka Garment Workers Union, the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GTWU), and the Garment Labor Union. GTWU leader K R Jayaram said they were planning a protest from April 20. But, he said, news that employees cannot withdraw old PF before they are 58 created “panic” and workers “forced us to launch the agitations ahead of schedule”. “We had planned it, but it got out of hand,” he added.