Box 1

The central unions and bank employee unions have been pushing for 12 major demands since September last year, including raising the minimum wage from Rs9,000 to Rs18,000 per month. They are:

1) Urgent measures for containing price rise through price universalisation.

2) Ban on speculative trade in commodity market.

3) Contain unemployment through concrete measures for employment generation.

4) Strict enforcement of basic labour laws without any exception or exemption and stringent punitive measures for violation of labour laws.

5) Universal social security cover for all workers.

6) Minimum wage of not less than Rs18,000 per month with provisions of indexation.

7) Assured enhanced pension not less than Rs3,000 per month for the entire working population.

8) Stop disinvestment in central/state public sector undertakings.

9) Stop contractorisation in permanent perennial work and payment of same wage and benefits for contract workers as regular workers for the same and similar work.

10) Removal of all ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, provident fund; increase the quantum of gratuity.

11) Compulsory registration of trade unions within a period of 15 days from the date of submitting application; and immediate ratification of International Labour Organisation Conventions C 87 and C 98.

12) No labour law amendments and no Foreign Direct Investment in the railways, insurance and defence sectors.

BOX 2

All major unions except BMS support strike

New Delhi: Normal life and operations in factories and banks are going to be affected on September 2 as major central trade unions have taken the call to go on strike. Nearly 500,000 bank union workers and officers, including employees of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are set to join the strike.

As many as 10 trade unions including Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Committee (TUCC), Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), United Trade Union Congress (UTUC) and Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) have given the call for the all-India strike.

The strike call is thus being supported by almost all major labour unions except Hindu fundamentalist outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), and may impact operations in the banking and insurance sectors, power supplies and coal mining.

CITU leader Tapan Sen described the hike in daily wages announced by the government on Tuesday as “status quo” and said there was “no question of calling off the strike”. The unions had held a strike on September 2 last year too. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government had met the unions last year and held meetings with them.