On August 8, 2007, there will be a country wide protest strike of workers of the unorganised sector. The call for the strike has been given by the General Council of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) during its session in Kolkatta in the last week of May. The strike call has met the support of trade unions and workers organizations cutting across party affiliation.

The strike call follows the unilateral approval on May 24 by the Union Cabinet of a bill for social security for unorganized sector workers. This bill has been rejected outright by all workers organizations who have been involved in the long and arduous struggle for a comprehensive legislation that guarantees the rights of workers of the unorganized sector, as it completely ignores all the suggestions of the workers organizations that have been placed before the labour ministry over the past several years, both during the three years of the UPA regime and in the years of the NDA regime. Instead it is an arbitrary piece of legislation which will guarantee nothing to the 40 crore workers in this sector.

Addressing a seminar in Chennai on June 24, 2007, on “Central Comprehensive Legislation for Unorganised Sector Workers” organized by the National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector Workers (NCC-USW), Shri T.S. Sankaran, former Additional Labour Secretary, and a moving spirit behind the drive for rights of workers of the unorganized sector, condemned the proposed central legislation and demanded that there should be a comprehensive legislation to protect all the rights of unorganized sector workers.

The issue of separate legislation for workers of unorganized sector has been under tripartite dialogue since 2002. The Labour Ministry has circulated several drafts of the bill. There have been drafts from the National Advisory Council (NAC), and two drafts from the National Commission on Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) earlier. Successive sessions of the Indian Labour Conference have also deliberated on this and made recommendations to the government. It is in this context that the trade unions and workers organizations are extremely angry at the government move to bypass their recommendations and impose a fraudulent legislation.

The demand of the trade unions and workers organizations is for two separate bills — one covering agricultural workers, and one covering all other workers of the unorganized sector such as construction, anganwadi, beedi, tea garden workers, brick kiln workers, gem cutting, textile, etc. In recent years, workers in the tiny and small industrial establishments in urban and rural areas have begun to organize themselves. Similarly, agricultural workers, whose livelihood is under increasing threat, are organizing themselves. These workers are forced to work in the most appalling conditions where there is no security of work. There is no legislation which recognizes them as workers with definite rights. These workers do not have assured income, but are made to work more than 12 hours a day. They don’t get any benefits such as pension, provident fund, medical allowance, regular earned leave, bonus, etc. Women workers are even more exploited than men in this sector. They are paid even lesser than men workers and are not provided maternity benefits, crèche facilities at the workplace, and other essential rights.

All these workers have been demanding that they be recognized as workers and their rights protected. They are demanding that they have a say in the formulation of legislation which concerns their conditions of work and livelihood. They are also demanding that tripartite boards involving workers be set up at all levels and across groups of employment in the unorganised sector so that workers will have a say in the implementation of legislation also.

The main arena of struggle between the workers organizations and the government is this— do the workers of the unorganised sector have rights as workers, including security of work, post retirement security, disability assistance etc, or they do not? Should these workers be left to fend for themselves as has been the case thus far, or does the society and state have a duty towards them? The trade unions and workers organizations are asserting that it is the duty of the government and society to affirm the rights of these workers, including the right to work. In opposition to the capitalists and governments claims that there is no money for social security, the workers organizations have calculated that what is needed is diverting a mere 3% of the GDP towards the welfare of workers.

Security of livelihood is a right that must be guaranteed to all members of society. This must necessarily include the right to work, health care, disability benefits, maternity benefits, old age and retirement benefits, and so on. Today, in the capitalist system that prevails in our country, the right to livelihood is not guaranteed to anyone. Besides violating their rights, the bourgeoisie also tries to divide the workers in various ways, as organised and unorganized, as workers belonging to this sector or that sector. In place of rights, what is offered is certain privileges to this or that section of workers, and this in turn is used to divide the class. In these conditions, the efforts of all sections of workers to come together and demand a comprehensive legislation for the workers in the unorganized sectors is a positive step in the advance of the working class movement. The Central governments’ move to pass a toothless legislation to fool the crores of workers must be exposed and opposed.