The Tamil Maanila Kattida Thozhilalar Sangam (RMKTS) is the fountainhead of the new approach/thinking on the unorganised labour. Whereas, the First National Commission on Labour had recommended the enactment of laws to regulate and protect construction and agriculture labour far back in 1960, there was no headway in this direction. Independent India’s ruling elite had continued with the colonial labour system and found no new way to resolve the problem of poverty. Even after independence, labour laws were structured within the pre-existing paradigm in which a fixed workplace/establishment and a permanent employer-employee relationship were inflexible and unchangeable rules. TMKTS was the one of the first trade unions to question the paradigm and structure of labour laws in India. It questioned the justice of keeping the vast majority of labour outside framework of labour laws. TMKTS and particularly, M.Subbu’s contribution to the Unorganised Workers Bill is huge. The successful implementation of the TN Construction Workers’ Welfare Scheme in Tamil Nadu has energised the demand for unorganised workers in Tamil Nadu and set of a cascading effect for all unorganised workers in the state and for a national-level legislation. The achievement of the Tamil Nadu construction workers has transposed a dream into reality. This has greatly strengthened the demands and added value to the quality of the enactment demanded.

Organising Strength and Union Power

In 1981, TMKTS set a precedent by unionising the construction workers across Tamil Nadu, a move that ran counter to the general perception that construction labour being footloose and informal cannot be organised. It was TMKTS’ organisational strategy, union power to mobilise thousands of workers and use this as political capital that forced the state government to recognize the rights of construction labour to social security and legislative protection.

From the late 1980s, TMKTS worked outside Tamil Nadu to build construction labour unions in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bihar. In 1991, it formed the National Federation of Construction Labour (NFCL), an independent industry-level union for construction workers. The TMKTS and NFCL were instrumental in bringing in other sections of unorganised workers, such as home-based, fish workers and farm and forest labour under the unified platform of the National Centre for Labour, which for the first time presented a memorandum to Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and this resulted in bringing the unorganised sector into the political mainstream. All through this period, NFCL followed through the Building and other Construction Workers Ordinance and Act in Parliament stage by stage till its enactment in 1996, opposing clauses which excluded informal sector workers from its purview. 

In TKMTS, a group of 30 workers, men and women doing any kind of work at the construction site can come together and form an area-based unit (30 is the minimum. It could go up to 200 members). They elect a president, secretary, treasurer, etc. and form a committee and conduct elections once in a year. In the socially backward, male-dominated construction industry, TMKTS ensures that women participate at both the unit as well as the district levels. There is at least one woman office bearer in a unit. One woman member as secretary is compulsory. The committee members meet once in a month to discuss the activities, future planning, accounts and local issues. If differences arise, a unit can split into two.

The unit’s office bearers jointly elect the taluk committee and office bearers which in turn elects the district committee once in two years. The office bearers of the local committee units and the taluk committee and the district committee form the general council. The general council elects the state office bearers once in two years, a group of nine including president, vice presidents (men and women), general secretary, joint general secretaries (both men and women) and treasurer.

All the district office bearers and the state office bearers form the executive committee. It can also have special invitees but they can only participate at the discussion level and do not have voting power. At present the membership of TMKTS is 80,000.

Each committee has a definite role to play. The local units collect subscription, enroll members, and take up disputes within their jurisdiction. If there are any accidents or any new issue, they inform the central body and act according to their instructions. The office bearers of the executive committee meet often and organise struggles, public meetings and produce campaign materials. Only some common issues are taken up at the state level. Local units handle local issues, and only if they become unmanageable, they approach the taluk, district or central office. The membership comes through the existing units. The new units can be formed only with the permission of the state office. Each unit is given a number by the central office. The centralised identity card is also given by the central office. Any unit, taluk, district leaders and also union members can send a worker to the central committee for membership.

Demand for Tripartite Labour Boards

 The issue of Tamil Nadu’s construction labour was taken to the national level in 1985 when TMKTS called for a seminar on ‘Central Legislation for Construction Labour’ and formulated a model Bill. The model Bill is conceptually the most powerful tool to organise the informal sector. Initially envisaged for construction labour, in principle, it meant a shift in the paradigm of a fixed establishment and a permanent employer-employee relationship. This model was based on a completely innovative idea of tripartite labour boards, which put the onus of identification and registration of workers on trade unions. This alternative scheme - Construction Workers Bill and Scheme - became the model Bill. The demand for its enactment was followed with perseverance at the state and national levels.

Struggle Spreads 

It is the infatigable energy of the leaders and organised strength of the TMKTS that forced the government of Tamil Nadu to enact the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. The TMKTS and construction workers of Tamil Nadu by their own example set the precedent for others to follow. In Tamil Nadu, this had a cascading effect and all sections started to demand Labour Boards along the lines of the construction workers. In 2000, when the TMKTS was demanding pension, it was in a position to negotiate on the issues of all unorganised. This lead to the formation of the Unoganised Sector Welfare Boards for 67 sections in Tamil Nadu boosting the entire informal sector. The Tamil Nadu experience has been a useful learning experience and brought the unorganised workers’ issues as an election issue and therefore into the political mainstream.

The TMKTS has set a precedent of accident compensation and pension for construction workers as a right. This and the recognition of the trade union as the primary agency to identify labour has added strength to the demand for an Unorganised Sector Workers’ Bill.