Dear Friends,
Nagarik Mancha is organising a two-day Interactive Meet on –
'Legal Rights, Social Security and Employment of Workers in West Bengal'.
Dates: 20-21 September 2008 (Saturday, Sunday)
Venue: Eastern Regional Centre, ICSSR
10 Jadunath Sarkar Road (formerly 10 Lake Terrace), Kolkata 700029
(Towards Lake/Southern Avenue from Deshopriyo Park Crossing)
Time: 10am to 6pm on both days
We are attaching a Theme Paper along with this invitation.
Please note that we expect you to confirm your participation well in advance.
With warm regards
Naba Dutta
General Secretary
Nagarik Mancha
6 September 2008
Theme Paper
We would like to discuss about the plight of workers with special reference to their legal rights, existing labour laws and the state of social security on the ground level. Emphasis, it may be noted, will be on underlining the changes deemed necessary for making labour laws more effective and identifying the specific areas towards evolving a true social security net. We would limit our focus primarily on West Bengal during the last three decades. However references of others States could come in handy to draw parallels for comparisons.
Firstly, in the light of facts, theory and experience we would like to initiate a threadbare dissection of existing laws, systems, government infrastructure, current demands and problems with the redressal system.
Secondly, we propose to look ahead. What would the proposed labour laws be like? Where, and to what extent do we demand state infrastructural support for the workers? What should be the most appropriate set of demands? What do we identify to be the constructive role of the trade unions?
The 'Interaction' will encompass labour laws, labour related financial schemes, industrial / company / factory / environment acts besides attempting a critique of various proposals and recommendations by the governments relating to labour.
For the sake of brevity we mention a few issues which needs to be discussed:
What should be the definition of a worker? Shouldn't a person earning wage/salary against labour/service offered, be considered to be a 'worker'?
Do owners of self-owned small enterprises who function also as a worker (owner-workers), have any legal space within the industrial dispute redressal framework?
What could be our general stance regarding insufficiency of labour courts, policy regarding appointment of judges, functioning of law enforcing agencies?
The social security schemes presently provided to workers come at a cost. A part of the workers wages are forfeited in order to obtain them. What then is the role of the Government and under such circumstances can these be really termed as 'social security'?
How can the workers rights be protected from events like mergers, takeover, selling of brands and other such monopolistic variations?
Should the social security of un-organised workers be limited to medical, accident and disablement benefits alone? What is a social security net and where does the governments fit in?
What should be our take on dividing the workers along the prevalent governmental practise of calling them 'organised' or 'un-organised'? Do we accept the basis of such a nomenclature?
What is the trade unions perspective about the difficulties being faced about implementation of law, benefit schemes and financial assistances offered by the government?
Why are the workers losing their legal rights?
What can be said about the role of trade unions representatives in various labour-related committees/organisations vis-a-vis protecting labour rights and democratic norms?
As a consequence of globalisation a number of rights which have been earned by workers over the last few decades are now being dismantled – does this in any way violate the letter and spirit of our Constitution?
The inter-relationship between employment-job-livelihood is undergoing a change. 'Placements' are becoming the order of the day. Isn't the concepts of job security and fair wage being made redundant and superfluous within the changed legal framework?
Perhaps understandably there are many more such areas which have been disturbing us and consequently we have felt the urgent need to interact with concerned sections of the citizenry.
We plan to invite resource persons and constitute three distinct panels comprising respectively of labour lawyers, trade unionists and social scientists to discuss the issues in an interactive manner with labour solidarity and support group activists and other concerned citizens. We propose to have these three consecutive sessions in two days and conclude with a session for synthesising what we learn.
We will prepare, circulate and read Approach/Discussion Papers before each of the three sessions in order to give a perspective about the broad framework of the expected interaction.
Naba Dutta
General Secretary
Nagarik Mancha
Room 7; Block B; First Floor
Kolkata 700085 India
Phone and Fax: +913323731921
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