In protest against the anti- labour policies of the NDA Government the labour unions would observe a massive and unprecedented strike in the month of March next year, informed Congress leader and State president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hira Singh Bisht while addressing the newsmen here on Thursday. Giving details of the deliberations of Rashtriya Mazdoor Congress held recently at Tal Katora stadium in New Delhi, Bisht who participated in the event said that Central Government is planning to bring 44 amendments in the labour laws to make it anti labour and pro management. He said that the representatives of the labour unions are united in opposition against these amendments. Bisht alleged that the Government wants to open Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nationalised Banks, Railways, Coal mines, defence sector and other PSUs to push labours to the brink. In the convention the representatives of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) apart from delegates of INTUC decided that anti labour policies should be opposed unitedly. Enthused by the huge success of Bharat Bandh call on September 02, these unions have decided to call a nationwide strike in which railway employee too would take part. The state INTUC President said that the draft proposal for the VII Pay commission has dashed the hopes of government employees as they would receive a hike of only 14.3 percent. “In the VI pay commission, the Congress government increased salaries by 54 percent. The present draft is good for only high ranking officers and there is a huge resentment among the Government employees,’’ Bisht quipped.
The congress leader praised the Harish Rawat government for regularizing the services of more than 15000 contractual employees. He said that the INTUC would put pressure on the state government to regularize the services of thousands of contractual UPNl employees.