WFTU Asia Pacific Regional Seminars

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) Asia Pacific Regional Seminars were held in New Delhi on 7-9 December 2004. Topics for the seminars were: Challenges before the trade unions under globalisation, in particular in the informal sector and Implementation of Social Standards in the Asia Pacific region. As many as 113 participants representing 40 national organisations and sectoral trade unions from nine countries namely, Australia, Bangladesh, North Korea, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam took part in the deliberations.

Seminar on Challenges before the trade unions under globalisation, in particular in the informal sector was inaugurated on 7 December 2004 by K M Sahni, Secretary, Labour Department, Government of India. K L Mahendra, President, WFTU presided over the inaugural session and spoke of the importance of the subject. Pong-Sul Ahn, Senior Specialist on ILO Advisory Scheme, was the chief guest. Navin Chandra, Senior Fellow, Institute for Human Development; Mrinmoy Bhattacharyya, General Secretary, TUI (Teachers), Sukomal Sen, General Secretary, TUI (Public Services), Suneet Chopra, General Secretary of AIAWU, Mehmood Zahedi, Member of Parliament and V S Nirmal of BKMU were among those who spoke on various aspects of the theme.

Uday Kumar Varma, Director, VV Giri National Labour Institute inaugurated the second seminar. Lakshmidhar Mishra, the former labour secretary of Government of India, made a presentation on the implementation of social standards in the Asia Pacific region. J John, Executive Director, Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) made an extensive presentation on the adverse effects of globalisation on tea industry in the region. H Mahadevan of AITUC presented a case study of India with reference to social class. Chittrabrata Majumdar, Member of Parliament and General Secretary, CITU presided over the inaugural session. The concluding session was presided over by Abani Roy, Member of Parliament with Bussi Maurizio, Deputy Director, ILO, India Office, as the Chief Guest.

The seminars concluded with a Declaration, which brought out the specific role that will be played by the trade unions in the region. According to the Declaration, the trade unions in the region, will strive to organise the unorganised so that the workers both in the organised and the unorganised sector together conduct struggles against the imperialist globalisation and against hunger and unemployment. The Declaration also emphasises on the fight against the attack on organised sector; struggle for living wages and security of service and social security for the workers in unorganised sector with better living conditions. Trade unions, in cooperation with all trade unions, irrespective of ideological differences, will battle for the implementation of the core labour standards, mobilise themselves against privatisation of public sector and globalisation and liberalisation besides the anti-working class policies being adopted by the governments. The workers will demand the respective governments in their countries to shun these policies.

Wage Board for Journalists in the Offing

The government will soon constitute a Wage Board for journalists and non-journalist employees of newspapers and news agencies. The assurance was given by Union Labour Minster Chandrasekhar Rao on 7 December 2004. Talking to a delegation of Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the Minister announced that since all political parties and central trade unions were demanding it, the Wage Board would be constituted very soon. Parliament’s Standing Committee on Labour has also made a unanimous recommendation for the constitution of a Wage Board.

The issue Wage Board has been a topic of discussion for a long time. On 13 October 2004, the then Labour Minister Sis Ram Ola had asked his ministry officials to prepare a note on the constitution of a new Wage Board for journalists and non-journalists for consideration of the cabinet following the demands by media persons and non-journalists. Prior to this, in the Asia-Pacific region meeting in Colombo during 21-23 August 2004 journalists’ leaders representing 14 countries from the region had unanimously called upon the Indian government to constitute Wage Boards for the media industry and in turn upwardly revise wages for Indian journalists. The meeting had demanded that for professional journalists should be properly remunerated for their work. Besides, the meeting recognised the fact that the journalists in India have not had a wage increase through the Wage Board system for many years.

State Assembly Passes

Plantations Labour (West Bengal Amendment) Bill

On 17 December 2004, the West Bengal government passed a Bill in the State Assembly aiming at increasing the minimum monthly wages of the plantation workers from Rs 750 to Rs 6,500. The Bill - Plantations Labour (West Bengal Amendment) Bill, 2004 – has been a topic for discussion in the past many years. The Bill was passed with full support from the Trinamul Congress and other Opposition parties. Workers in tea plantations across the state were deprived of various welfare schemes and health facilities provided under the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 because of the low ceiling of monthly wages fixed in it. According to government figures, altogether 41 tea gardens in north Bengal were shut down in the past year. Out of these, 28 have reopened while workers of eight of the 13 closed gardens are getting a monthly allowance of only Rs 500.

If the amended Bill is implemented, the tea garden owners of north Bengal will have to pay a minimum wage of Rs 6,500 every month to its employees. About 300,000 workers in north Bengal are expected to benefit from the amendment. The benefit would reach the workers only if the government implements the Act with alacrity. One has to wait and watch whether the government is serious about implementing this amendment.

Prime Minister Announces Constitutional

Amendment to Give Autonomy to Cooperatives

To ensure the right to election, autonomous management and independent professional audit of cooperatives, the Government of India will soon bring a constitutional amendment. Voluntary, democratic and autonomous will be the three keywords incorporated in the Constitution for the empowerment of cooperatives. With these three rights, no state law will be able to throttle cooperatives. The government has also set up a Task Force to recommend an action plan for reviving rural cooperative banking institutions. The task force would also recommend an appropriate regulatory framework, and measures for improving efficiency and viability of the cooperative banking sector. The government’s idea is to restore full independence of cooperatives so that they work according to the spirit of the cooperative movement and serve as effective institutions for people’s participation in development and equitable distribution of income. At present, the status of cooperatives in India is alarming. Out of 310 cooperative sugar factories, 111 are facing losses and out of 159 spinning mills, 77 have closed and another 55 are on verge of closure. As a new initiative, the government has set up committees for revitalisation of the sugar industry to make it globally competitive. A rehabilitation scheme for spinning cooperatives will be shortly launched by the National Cooperative Development Corporation.

Second Round of VRS for FACT Employees

The Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) in Aluwa, Kerala plans to launch a second round of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme for its employees. The move of the FACT management is aimed at slashing the workforce by 1,000 as it gears for a turnaround this year. FACT currently has about 4,500 employees on its rolls. About 900 employees had opted for the last round of VRS offered by the company.