Eleven central trade unions, irrespective of their political affiliations, on Monday called upon workers from all sectors to organise a ‘National Protest Day’ on December 5 against the Narendra Modi Government’s move to amend labour laws, growing contracterisation and a hike in FDI in defence, railways and insurance, among others.

Addressing a national convention held to kick off a two-month-long campaign across the country, the BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’s General Secretary Brijesh Upadhyay said the Modi Government had criticised the ‘policy paralysis’ of the previous regime, but was promoting anti-labour polices that would ‘paralyse the workers’. He demanded a white paper from the Government on how much foreign direct investment (FDI) had come into the country after Independence.

Upadhyay said trade unions did not want to confront the new Government so soon but were being forced by the speed with which labour law changes were being carried out, adding that the Rajasthan Government’s move alone would push 97.3 per cent workers out of the ambit of labour laws.

Tapan Sen and Gurudas Dasgupta, General Secretaries of the Left-backed CITU and AITUC, respectively, termed the Modi Government’s policies as “anti-national”.

“The aggressive move for disinvestment in public sector units, including the financial sector, will be detrimental to the interests of the national economy, national security as well as the mass of the common people,” said Sen.

The All India Railway Men’s Federation, the Railway’s largest union affiliated to the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, said it was time for an ‘indefinite strike, adding that FDI in the sector would be opposed ‘tooth and nail’.

The convention, attended by unions in the banking, insurance, railways, defence, oil & gas sectors as well as Central and State Government employees, also flayed the Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar for going back on his assurance to consult unions before carrying out labour law amendments.

“All moves of amendments in the labour laws, both by the Central Government and by the Rajasthan Government are aimed at empowering employers to retrench/lay off workers or declare closure/ shutdown at will and resort to mass-scale contracterisation,” said a joint resolution.

Harbhajan Singh, AITUC President, Punjab, said “Contracterisation was growing by the day. In 1992, the electricity sector in the State had 1,25,000 regular workers, whereas in 2014, there are only 40,000 regular workers and 10,000 contract workers. The rest of the work is outsourced.”

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