It has to be admitted that the strike caused by major trade unions did not fully succeed. Banking and transport sectors were crippled. But the strike call had only a marginal impact in Mumbai and Delhi. Kerala was affected but not Bengal. Strikers need to rethink their strategy. The price rise of course calls for protest. Workers have the right to demand better pay and benefits. But does it justify putting the public to great inconvenience and causing economic loss? Collective bargaining is undoubtedly a better solution. The trade union movement in India is not alive to the significance of labour policy reform. Strikers demand stricter enforcement of labour laws, an end to contract labour and inclusion of the unorganised sector in the social security net. But are the unions all that interested in the workers in the unorganised sector?
Pushing labour reform in India has been stalled for quite some time. It results in a great deal of job insecurity. Factories have not come up to the desired extent with the result that farm hands and low-paid workers have no mobility. Consider in this context the number of farmers’ suicides. The unorganised sector has expanded. Consequently alleviation of poverty remains a remote goal. The unions have to realize that social security does not just mean provision of good, secure jobs. Employers spend a lot on staff training and skills development and the cost should be met by a labour market dependent on sophisticated technology. Workers’ performance must improve to better employer-employee relations. The proposed labour reform may enable adoption of a hire and fire policy. But at the same time it will give labour greater mobility. Workers’ interest therefore does not lie in opposing labour reform. Greater productivity of workers should give them a larger share of organisational profitability.
