TN: Withdraw Proposed Amendments to Factories Act, Says CITU; Calls for Protests

Chennai: Stating that he proposed amendments to the Tamil Nadu Factories Act 1948 were “sudden and shocking”, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Tamil Nadu, has called for protests in district capitals and in factories against the draft Bill, demanding its withdrawal.

“It has been 75 years since the introduction of the Factories Act. In all these years, no government has amended the clauses related to working hours. These amendments come at the behest of the union government and on the demand of industrialists” read a statement by CITU state president A Soundararajan and general secretary G Sukumaran.

On April 12, the Tamil Nadu Minister for Labour Welfare and Skill Development C V Ganesan introduced a Bill to amend the Act in the Assembly.

 ‘FLEXIBLE WORK HOURS?’

Sections 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 59 of the Factories Act deal with statutory provisions, such as hours of work, weekly holidays, intervals for rest, spread of work, overtime, pay for overtime, compensatory leave for overtime and rest periods during work. If the Bill is adopted and becomes a law, the state government would be able to exempt any factory or group of factories from any or all of the provisions.

“For more than thirty years, industries and industries’ associations have been asking to increase working hours to 12 hours a day. In line with the demand, the Tamil Nadu government has agreed to dilute the working hours and it flexible” read the CITU statement.

Reduction of working hours has always been the demand of trade unions, the move of the Tamil Nadu government has been against it, it said.

The move, the union alleged, was initiated following representation from many industries and industry associations, as the government states that making the statutory provisions flexible will benefits the workers.

 ‘BLINDLY FOLLOWING UNION GOVT’

Although the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, was enacted by the Union government in September 2020, it is yet to be brought into force. Prior to that, the state government has proposed a draft Bill with provisions of the code.

Section 127 of the Code enables the state government (when notified) to provide for flexible working hours. It reads “...where the State Government is satisfied in the public interest that it is necessary to create more economic activities and employment opportunities, it may, by notification, exempt, subject to such conditions as it may think fit, any new factory or class or description of new factories from all or any of the provisions of this Code…”

The Code subsumes 13 labour enactments, including the Factories Act, 1948, relating to the occupation, safety, health and working conditions of workers, something that trade unions across the country are opposing.

“It is not good for the Tamil Nadu government to blindly accept the labour codes passed by the union government. It is worrisome that Tamil Nadu has jumped in and made amendments even before the union government implemented the codes” read the CITU statement.

‘ANTI-UNION MOVE’

CITU said the state labour ministry did not hold any consultative meetings with trade unions ahead of the proposed draft Bill. If the amendments are beneficial for workers, as claimed by the DMK government, trade unions wonder why they were not roped into any discussion on it.

The CITU accused the state government of “overstepping” the State Labor Advisory Board, a tripartite committee consisting of industries, government and trade union representatives. The purpose of this board is to advise the government on matters related to legislative amendments. 

Stating that the Bill is anti-union, CPI(M) MLAs Nagai Mali and M Chinnadurai asked the labour minister to reconsider the amendment. They proposed that the Bill to be sent to the advisory committee for consultation along with trade union representatives.