UPA's labour policies quite anti-labour: CPI(M)

New Delhi, Mar 17 (UNI) Launching a sharp attack on the labour policies of the UPA government, senior CPI(M) leader Chittabrata Majumdar today said the ruling alliance was going against all the promises made in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) for the protection of the organised and unorganised workers.

The functioning of the Labour Department has raised several questions over its ability and intentions to promote the interest of labour classes, he said initiating a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

There is a Trade Union Act and the Industrial Disputes Act but they are not being used in the interest of the workers.

''State force was being used against workers demanding their legitimate rights, including the right to form trade unions. This happened in the case of Honda factory workers in Gurgaon and recently in Ludhiana,'' he said.

Firstly, all resistance is put to the registration of a union, and even if it is registered, the management is reluctant to settle disputes with it, and the Labour Commission too does not prove to be of much help. The government seems to be completely working in the interest of management instead of the labour classes, he said.

The CMP underlines that it was against the hire and fire policy and envisions changing the law in this connection, but any such change will not be acceptable to workers unless it was brought in consultation with trade unions.

There is nothing for unorganised workers in the Union Budget too, and the very language of the Economic Survey for 2005-2006 is anti-labour.

It says ''the India labour laws are highly protective. These laws have restricted labour mobility,'' which is against the spirit of the CMP, said Mr Majumdar.

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