Ostriches Do Not Bury Their Head In Sand, Government Does!.
[Following is reproduced from Business Standard report titled ‘Government pats its back for peaceful 2010. Contrary to popular belief Ostriches do not bury their head in sand; now we know that Governments do!]
The government has praised itself for maintaining industrial peace, citing reduced number of strikes and lockouts, but was silent on sporadic labour violence and contract-based appointments of non-unionised workforce.
The Economic Survey 2010-11 said, “Due to the constant endeavour of industrial relations machineries of both the Centre and states, the industrial relations climate has generally remained peaceful and cordial. The number of incidents of strikes and lockouts has exhibited a declining trend over the past few years. Strikes and lockouts have declined from 349 in 2009 to 99 in 2010. Correspondingly, the total number of mandays lost has also declined from 9169,037 in 2009 to 1699,826 in 2010.”
According to the All India Trade Union Congress National Secretary D L Sachdeva, there is no machinery for monitoring or enforcing basic entitlements like minimum wages, which make labour law violations routine. Workers are not able to form unions, as most of them are on contract. So, there were no strikes and that was not a reflection of a cordial atmosphere, he said.