Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
In the guise of global economic crisis, various industrial and commercial establishments have already created an environment of job-insecurity for workers; some alert exploiters having already resorted to lay off / retrenchment even as labor laws implementation authorities in various States have got proforma requests from various companies for permission to impose lay off.
And, as is the wont of administration, it would be the rarest thing to watch if in any case permissions is denied.
So, the regime has, in the name of development, developed an environment of lay off and retrenchment and rampant job-insecurity.
International pressure is a ploy. Our peoples need employment and job security. They are being dragged into unemployment and job-insecurity. This is the reality.
It is noteworthy that the companies that are resorting to lay off / retrenchment, are not closing down their establishments. This means, the companies shall run to meet the demands of the markets but shall run with less personnel. In other words, works shall not stop. Production shall go on. But less number of workers will shoulder larger workloads with the same or lessened salaries.
Hand in glove with the players of world exploitation network, the “right viruses” are in a position to eat away the climate of job-security in India.
And, the industrial employers who prosper by usurping the surplus value of labor have got the golden opportunity to get more works done by lesser number of workers. So, sure, there will now open up an unprecedented era of lay off and retrenchment. And, scheming managements will marshal false evidences of financial loss to obtain permission for lay off/ retrenchments.
Industrial Laws provide for adjudication on legality of lay off or retrenchment and Labor Courts and Tribunals shall now swell up with disputes. But any body having any experience of functioning of the Labor Courts and Tribunals know the victimized worker will seldom survive to get a bit of justice.
What should be done in the circumstances?
To me it occurs that there is only a single way to save the workers from unwanted lay off / retrenchment.
This way should be enforced by the central government with immediate effect and applicability to the entire geographical limits of India.
If the central government is not a box of “right-viruses” but a set up with concern for the working class, it should promulgate that every management that proposes for or proceeds to impose lay off or retrenchment, must allow the worker to be affected by its order to personally or collectively or through his / her agent audit the accounts and efficiency of management of the concerned company or establishment to determine as to whether the said company or establishment has suffered or is about to suffer genuine losses to justify the lay off / retrenchment.
If this does not happen, it may lead us to infer that the “right-viruses” have only one intension and that is to eat away the climate of job security of our peoples under the cover of “globalisation”.
Of course, the government can ban lay off and retrenchment altogether and ensure job-security to workers.