ASSOCHAM has just released a study on labour reforms. Through this study, it has mooted various suggestions for changes in labour laws that would enable capitalists to increase their profits. ASSOCHAM is one of the main associations of capitalists in our country.

There can be nothing in common between what the capitalists want and what the workers want. A look at the key proposals of ASSOCHAM reveals this.

Demand to increase working hours

ASSOCHAM has proposed that the weekly mandatory working hours be increased from 48 to 60! This is in line with a similar recommendation made by the 6 th Pay Commission.

From the earliest days of the working class movement, the struggle for the reduction and restriction of the working day, has been a major arena of class struggle. The capitalists in all countries have always fought for no restrictions on the length of the working day. The longer the working day, the greater the degree of exploitation of workers, and greater the profits made by the capitalist.

The 8 hour working day is not implemented in all sectors, for all workers. In the newer sectors of the economy, in sectors connected with export, in sectors where workers are not unionized yet, workers work long hours, sometimes more than 60 hours a week. This is the reality. The capitalists want to legalise this to increase the exploitation of entire working class and the government is repeating the mantra of the capitalists.

The shorter the working day, the less the degree of exploitation of the worker. This means proportionately, he or she is working more hours for himself or herself, and less for the capitalist. But it does not mean that the capitalist has stopped extracting surplus value from the labour of the worker. Through various means, such as technological improvements, compulsory overtime, increasing number of shifts, cutting down on lunch/tea time of workers, and so on, he not only increases the degree of exploitation of the worker, he increases his rate of profit as a whole.

The working class must hoist on its banner the 40 hour work week or less and fight for its implementation in all sectors. In hazardous sectors such as driving, mining, etc. they should fight for the implementation of the 6 hour day, as working beyond that is dangerous not only for the worker, but society as large.

Night shift work for women

A second demand of ASSOCHAM in its study is legalising employing women in night shifts in all industries.

Why are capitalists interested in employing women? Apart from the fact that women workers are good workers, the primary reason behind this interest is that women workers are more vulnerable, as workers. They can be paid less for equal amount of work. Women workers find it more difficult to organize and fight back because of social conditions and the pressure to look after their homes and children. Where more women workers are employed, there is also pressure on the overall wages of all workers in that sector. Thus, by employing more women workers, capitalists want to increase the overall exploitation of the working class.

With liberalization and globalization of the economy, many of the sectors of the economy from IT and IT enabled services, to the sweat shops called garment exports, leather exports etc. have boomed. These sectors employ a lot of women. In these sectors, night shifts of 10-12 hours already exist. By demanding that restrictions on employing women in night shifts be removed, they simply want to increase the exploitation of the work force as a whole.

The working class has demanded that there be equal pay for equal work for women and men. Society must recognise the role of women as the rearers of the next generation. Women workers must be provided with creche facilities, maternity leave. Hazardous work injurious to their health must be prohibited. Hence, the working class has opposed night shift work for women in many sectors, even as it has demanded special facilities for working women, recognizing their role as mothers.

Already, in many sectors, including in private nursing, private airlines, etc. women employed in night shifts are not even provided safe transport to and from home or security in the workplace! This is the situation sought to be created for all working women. Working class must vigorously oppose this move and expose its intent.

Further legalising contract labour

As is known, step by step the space for employing contract labour has been expanded in the past decades. While no changes in the law of Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act have been made, the central and state governments have expanded the arena for employing contract labour using the services of the Supreme Court and High Courts. Contract labour is now widely employed in all public sector enterprises, as well as big private sector enterprises and in all sectors of the economy.

ASSOCHAM is calling upon the government to amend the Contract Labour Act so that contract labour can be freely hired in all sectors, without any restriction. It is demanding that the law be amended so that the question of abolishing contract labour in any sector or company does not arise at all. Instead it wants the law to legalise the existence of contract labour, and just provide for minimum wages. The world wide trend of outsourcing, hiring contract labour and vendorisation is cited as justification for this demand .

Hiring contract labour means hiring workers with virtually no rights, workers who will not know when they leave their homes where their next meal will come from. One of the sectors that thrives on contract labour, on paying workers less than minimum wages and extracting longest hours of working day, is the burgeoning industry of private security agencies. The bourgeoisie wants to ensure its own security, the security of its property, by hiring workers who must remain totally insecure — all for ensuring maximum profits. This is a crying contradiction of this man-eating capitalist system. Similarly millions of workers' families are engaged on contract in the construction industry, and in various infrastructure projects including roads, rail, and airports. Their children are born on the construction sites, and they live and die moving from one site to another, with no home they can call their own.

The working class fights for complete abolition of contract labour in all sectors of the economy.

Expanding definition of public utility services

Certain branches of industry are classified as "public utility" by the Central and State governments. Workmen have to give a 14 day notice of strike in such industries. ASSOCHAM wants to amend the law to bring in more branches of industry into the category of "public utility". It wants to include all export oriented units, continuous process services, hazardous services, services in hospitals, security, house keeping and back office work, in the list of "public utilities".

The capitalists want all sectors of industry to be open to hire and fire with workmen to be hired on contract, and women working on night shifts, all so that they can make maximum profits. At the same time, they do not want the workers in security services, workers in export units including in leather and garment, nurses, karamcharis and doctors in hospitals, and other workers to have the possibility of going on strike in support of better wages and working conditions. Therefore they want the government to declare these sectors as "public utility".

The working class cannot accept the capitalist logic that their right to organise and go on strike should be curtailed in the interest of maximising the profits of the capitalist. We must expose and oppose the propaganda of the bourgeoisie that falsely equates the interests of the capitalists with public interests.

Definition of workmen

ASSOCHAM has proposed that the definition of a workman in law should be amended to exclude workers who get a salary above Rs. 10,000 a month. It openly declares that it wants to deprive workers in banks, insurance, airlines, universities, hospitals, and other sectors of economy, from the right to unionise and the right to strike.

Society is divided into exploiters and exploited, into those who own means of production, and those who own nothing but their labour power. This selling of labour power is the crucial element that defines a workman, not the salary he earns. There are many crucial sectors of the economy, which require extremely skilled and educated workmen. Such workers, who are not living hand to mouth, when they are organised in unions, are able to more effectively resist the attacks of the capitalists. The capitalists want to weaken the struggle of the working class by such moves. The working class must vigorously oppose this move of the capitalists to deprive workers of their rights as workers,

Indian capitalists have long been trying to restrict the rights of workers. Passing special laws restricting workers rights for special economic zones; amending labour laws in different states wherever they can more easily get away with it, the capitalists are trying to move ahead one step at a time in their overall onslaught on the rights of workers. The working class needs to fight unitedly against all these onslaughts. It must wage this struggle with a vision of ending the capitalist system, which is the source of the miseries of not only workers, but the whole of society.

The capitalist system ensures that a minority owns the means of production, controls state power, and exploits the labour of the vast masses. We need to replace it with a system wherein state power is in control of the working class and peasantry, wherein the means of production is under social control, and the orientation of economy is to provide for the people and for the future generations. This is the struggle we must wage.