The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Friday said it got an “assurance” from the government to not pursue the proposed Code on Industrial Relations without consultation with the trade unions. The draft IR Code proposes to do away with the requirement of the government’s permission for retrenchment, lay-offs, closure and transfer for units with 300 workers or more from 100 now. BMS has been demanding a complete withdrawal of the IR Code, considered to be the mother of all labour reforms that the present dispensation had embarked on immediately after assuming office by amalgamating 44 central extant labour laws into four codes with the aim of ensuring the “ease of doing business”. The assurances came at a meeting on Friday between the BMS representatives, including its national President Saji Narayanan and three members of the labour-related mineral panel, headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley. Two other members of the panel – labour minister Santosh Singh Gangwar and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan were not present in the meeting.
BMS took out a massive rally in the city earlier in the day protesting against “anti-labour policies of the government”. Following the culmination of the rally at the Parliament Street, BMS also submitted to the ministerial panel a 19-point charter of demands that inlcude implementation of equal wages for equal work in all sectors and minimum wages in all types of establishments at all levels. “We want complete withdrawal of the proposed IR Code. The finance minister has assured us that the government will examine our demand and nothing will be done on the Code without the consultation of the trade unions,” Narayanan said.
Under the proposed code, which amalgamates the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, outsiders will be barred from being office bearers of trade unions in the organised sector and strikes can be resorted to only after a 14 days’ notice.