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The tendu rebellion in Gadchiroli
Pavan Dahat writes in The Hindu about how “early last year, 18 villages in Bhamragad division began a revolt against the contractors’ monopoly and decided to sell directly to the beedi companies. With the contractors out of the picture, the villagers stood to earn three times as much as before.” Now the rebellion has grown to 48 villages in three blocks. The contractors used to pay the villagers a daily wage and a small royalty on the sale. When the contractors refused to increase their wages from Rs. 6,000 per season to Rs. 16,000, the villagers decided to take matters into their own hand. With the help of CPI leaders and the gram sabhas, they have begun to collect, store and transport the tendu leaves completely without the aid of outside capital. Mahesh Raut, a village activist and organiser, said, “The final sale to the beedi companies is going to be a landmark one, but the process has already created history. If we succeed, every village in Gadchiroli will revolt and take control of the tendu leaves business.”
39 construction workers from India confirmed killed in Iraq by ISIS
The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the execution of 39 construction workers abducted by ISIS in 2014 from Mosul in Iraq. 40 Indian workers were employed in the oil-rich city of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2014. When the region was overrun by ISIS forces, they were abducted along with a number of other workers. While one of the workers managed to escape, the whereabouts of the rest remained in mystery for the past four years. While the survivor had claimed earlier that he was witness to the execution and had managed to escape after suffering bullet shots to his thighs, the government refused to confirm this information. It had even asked the family members to be hopeful of their return. But in a suo moto reference in Rajya Sabha on March 20, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj confirmed that their bodies had been recovered and identified from a mass grave near Badoosh, in territory wrested from ISIS a few months back. The incident reveals the vulnerability of workers employed in conflict zones and also the lack of engagement by our government in providing safety to our workers.
All India strike by Ola-Uber drivers affects metros across India
The strike was called by the Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena, the transport wing of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, and was most effective in Mumbai and Pune and partial in cities like Delhi and Bangalore. In Mumbai, 60,000 cabs were reportedly off the road. The drivers are on an indefinite strike, protesting that the companies have not listened to their repeated complaints about working long hours but still not being to earn enough to repay their car loans. This was exacerbated by fuel hikes. The drivers claim that they were told by the companies that they would earn more than one lakh per month and took loans based on these promises.
Business Standard reported, “the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested 12 people, including Sanjay Naik, the president of the transport wing of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), besides some drivers” based on an FIR. The strike was reportedly forcibly enforced with various drivers not being given a choice, some complaining of their cabs being damaged and their phones being taken away. The MNS called off the Ola strike on Thursday while there’s no update on the negotiations with Uber. Ola said they would look into the demands within 15-20 days and respond.
Mumbai residents’ problems were compounded by a rail roko by job-seeking young men who were demanding jobs in the railways.
Legalising contractualisation of work
With the emphasis on ‘ease of doing business’, the NDA government has yet again sided with the corporate community by legalising contract labour. With a Gazette notification, the central government has extended ‘Fixed Term Contract’ flexibility to all sectors of industry. Companies can now hire workers on fixed terms while providing statutory benefits for that period rather than employ them on permanent roles. This allows companies to downsize labour force at ease while increasing precarity of employment for workers. This policy had been provided for the apparel sector as a special case for the past two years.
This policy shift in labour law nullifies the Contract Labour (Abolition and Regulation) Act, which was designed to prevent the spread of contractualisation by constraining employment of contract workers in primary production, for extended periods of time and in perennial jobs. Though the act was often violated, it had provided a legal avenue for workers to gain permanent employment. With this policy change, the act becomes a dead letter. There is also a risk that existing permanent jobs might be axed by companies to benefit from this new provision.
Maharashtra Government is planning to set up a dispute resolution board under the jurisdiction of the Contract Labour (Abolition and Regulation) Act, to resolve disputes arising between contract workers and companies. The board will have members from the government, companies, labour contractors and representatives of contract workers. While unions have welcomed the plan, they have also said that the government should legislate to make the existing contract workers to be made permanent as per the spirit of the law.
Sexual harassment on college campuses in a renewed focus
Sexual harassment on college campuses has been in renewed focus because of protests in JNU, Delhi as well as NIFT, Kannur. The protests are a consequence of the failure of the institutions to effectively handle cases of sexual harassment in these workspaces and also create confidence in the objectivity of the process and proportionality of punishments. The issue has also come to focus after the conviction of senior professor Lawrence Liang at Ambedkar University, Delhi. While some have hailed the process for expanding the jurisdiction of sexual harassment committees, others have expressed disappointment with the penalties imposed. Lawrence Liang has refuted the report and has maintained he would appeal the report.
Other news
Yet another fire accident in industrial area leaves three dead
In uncanny similarity to the fire accident in Bawana that had left over 17 people dead, a fire accident in a paint factory in Sonipat’s Rai Industrial area left three dead, including 2 minors and a worker. It also caused burn injuries to many others. Once again, the paint stored in the factory without proper safety is suspected to have fuelled the fire. With many exits blocked and the fire spreading to adjacent factories, it delayed the fire tenders from dousing the fire. Workers had to jump off the higher floors to escape the fire, which also caused injuries.
Protests in Manesar against Maruti verdict
A large number of workers owing allegiance to different unions in the Gurugram-Manesar industrial belt held a meeting at Kamla Nehru Park on Sunday in protest against the court’s March 18, 2017, verdict. The judgment sentenced 13 Maruti Suzuki workers to life imprisonment in a case pertaining to violence at the automobile company’s Manesar plant in which a senior manager was killed and several executives injured. The workers also submitted a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind through the Gurugram Deputy Commissioner, seeking his intervention in the matter and to ensure the immediate release of the convicted workers.
Supreme Court asks governments to frame rules to treat construction workers as formal workers
More than four crore construction workers are set to be treated as formal sector employees as the Supreme Court has brought them “within the ambit of social welfare laws and provide benefits like paid maternity leave, provident fund and minimum wage”, reports the Times of India.
Deteriorating trend in India’s labour intensive sectors
In three charts, a LiveMint analysis shows how labour intensive businesses have not recovered fully from the impact of GST. Both exports and data from the Index Industrial Production (IIP) show capital-intensive sectors bouncing back unlike labour-intensive sectors. “What is also worrying is that imports in these sectors have risen sharply in the mentioned period. Historically, exports/imports of these sectors have moved in tandem. This suggests that it’s disruption in the supply chains of these sectors that are hurting rather than weakness in end demand,” Kapil Gupta, vice-president at Edelweiss Securities Ltd, is quoted as writing in a previous report.
Workers left in the lurch after auto parts maker in Chennai shuts plant without notice
113 workers found themselves without a job overnight when Dongsan Automotive, a tier-2 supplier of Hyundai, closed its business without notice and discussion with the workers’ union. It had cited the lack of orders from Hwashin, their primary customers. The workers also realised that their PF deductions have not been paid into their accounts. Some of the machinery in the plant was confiscated by Hwashin for unpaid debts of Dongsan to Hwashin. This has left the workers in a dire condition after putting in over a decade of work with the company.
Weekend reading
Media’s coverage of farmers’ protest: entertainment trumps information
The acute distress in the agricultural sector has led to intense protests by farmers from across the states demanding state intervention and proactive actions to support the farming communities. While the mainstream media can claim that they have covered these protests with adequate print and broadcast space, have they done an effective job of informing people about these issues? An article in Caravan titled ‘Cropped Out’ uses content analysis methods to answer this critical question. The research exposes the systemic failure of the mainstream media, exposing its bias towards sensational presentations rather than substantive coverage. In a scathing criticism of the focus of media on the ‘spectacles’ of the protests, it states “Readers were given little context for the farmers’ struggle and were kept uninformed about their own stake in the agrarian crisis.” Further, this misinformation, the article observes, is amplified on social media. It concludes that “The corporatisation of media has meant that most organisations focus on maximising profits. Rural reporting for many is not considered worth the investment.”