INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC SEWA AICCTU LPF UTUC
Date: 1.04.2020
To
Shri Santosh Gangwar
The Minister for Labour and Employment,
Govt. of India
Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg
New Delhi - 110001
Sir,
We the Central Trade Unions would like
to draw your attention to the complaints/information/grievances being received
by us from the workers, employees and our unions from all over India.
On our part we are doing whatever possible at our level in
contacting the concerned officials of various government/state enterprises/institutions/
industries/sectors and the state & local administration for the redressal.
Our unions and activists are also involved in the relief work despite
constraints of movement.
However we are bringing to your notice
for seeking your immediate intervention at your level.
At the outset we would like to
point out that we had raised several issues in our joint letter addressed to
the Prime Minister on 26th March 2020 (letter attached). We had
demanded immediate announcement of strong statutory enforceable measures to
arrest and put a ban on the ongoing spree of retrenchments, wage cut, forced
unpaid leave etc being perpetrated by the employers on the workers,
particularly contract/casual/temporary/fixed term workers in various
establishments, particularly in private sector throughout the country to be
enforced both by central and state governments. We are still regularly
getting information of forced unpaid leave etc. including from NCR
region. Appeal/Advisory by the Govt, both the Labour Ministry and Home
Ministry is not at all working at ground level to prevent loss of employment
and earnings and also eviction from local residence in the process of lock
down. We had detailed the demands about the immediate packages for various
sectors of workers.
The experience of the past seven days
unfortunately bears out our apprehensions. We give some instances:
Employees manning essential services run in the public/government sector being
stopped and detained by the police, in spite of their holding valid
Identity Cards issued by the concerned authorities, the
contract/outsourced workers mostly not being provided any protective gear. Even
the ASHA and Anganwadi workers who are working in the frontline in combating
Corona are being tortured and manhandled in various states by Police and local
miscreants with impunity.
A vast number of workers, not even
registered in any of the welfare boards and for whose benefit the Government
claims to be putting in place the Social Security Code, suddenly find themselves
without work, without any support system to feed them and cut off far away from
their native places. There are reports pouring in from all the States that
workers’ services are being dispensed with in total disregard of the “Advisory”
by the Secretary Ministry of Labour and also by Home Secretary.
The government has not mobilized any
machinery to transport grain supplies in their Godowns to various rationing
outlets in States. Restriction on inter-state transport movement made the
situation difficult further. Hoarding is rampant and the prices of essential
commodities are shooting up which is causing further hardship to the working
people.
We urge you to impress upon the
concerned departments to deal with those seeking opportunity in this hour
of crisis or being callous to the plight of the masses, by enforcing the
message of government advisories, to ensure that everyone has the means to feed
himself/herself.
The migrant workers are in deep distress
with no work, no money and removal from their work places and in many cases
eviction from the rented accommodations, and have nothing to depend upon
for stay and food and are desperately attempting to reach back to their
home facing police highhandedness. Due to sudden lock down, the rail and road transport
shutdown, they are walking on highways hundreds of miles, some of
them along with their families including small children. Many of them are
stopped/detained, insulted and humiliated by police particularly on the
inter-state borders and are now staying under the sky midway. And above
this, there are reports of deaths due to accidents and hardships.
We urge you that the government
must act urgently to rescue them with necessary transport facilities and they
should be provided with food, shelter water and required health services.
This is in line with the directions/advisories issued by the Home Secretary to
all state govts. But Central Govt also must take the responsibilities to
facilitate implementation of their own advisories/directions.
Please also ensure that all the
unorganized workforce, registered and un registered, the
daily/casual/contract/outsourced and piece rated home based workers,
agriculture workers, MGNREGA and scheme workers including ASHA, Mid
day meal, Anganwadi and others in such a category, those who are truck drivers
and helpers, coolies/porters/loaders unloaders, construction & beedi
workers, the domestic workers, waste pickers, self employed as hawkers-vendors,
rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw/auto/taxi drivers etc. are covered for the cash
and ration relief at the earliest. Public Distribution System be used
effectively and universally for all these needy people. Opening of procurement
centers for the farm produce near to villages and towns could also help the
accessibility to the producers and buyers. A comprehensive income-support
scheme for all the unorganized/informal sector workers is the urgent need of
the hour and we urge the Govt to urgently act upon the same to save
overwhelming majority of the country’s workforce from biggest human disaster.
Bank branches in some cases are 40 – 50 kilometer from the place of
workers/their families, hence the other methods of disbursal of cash transfer
should also be devised.
The ESIC hospitals and dispensaries
be furnished with all necessary protective equipments for the
safety of medical, paramedical, safai karamcharis and other staff while giving
their services. The necessary inputs of medical facilities be taken care
off. They should also be considered for insurance cover.
In view of the ever-growing scale and
spread of the problems of these workers particularly migrant workers, and the
trade unions being in the thick of things we request you to ask the
counterparts in ministry of labour in respective states to communicate
and coordinate with all the trade unions in their states including
formation of trade union committees and issuing valid passes to office bearers
of trade unions for addressing the above mentioned issues including their
participation in relief work.
INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC
SEWA AICCTU LPF UTUC
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