Demanding the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw the amendment to the Factories Act, 1948, CPI(M) workers along with their party’s Politburo member G. A demonstration was held in Madurai on 24 April 2023 under the leadership of Ramakrishnan. Photo credits: Ashok R.
On the last day of the budget session of the assembly that ended last week, the MK Stalin-led government ignored strong protests by legislators from several parties, including allies, and adopted it. The Factories (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2023, However, three days later, on Monday evening, when it became clear that things might be spiraling out of control, Mr. Stalin announced that all further action on the proposed law was being put on hold.,
The decision means that there is no immediate danger of workers in factories increasing their daily working hours beyond the standard eight hours.
The laborious amendment sought by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government to exempt “any factory or group or class or description of factories” from any or all of the provisions of section 51, 52, 54, 56 or 56 of factories Was. Act, 1948.
It sought to enable factories to apply for and obtain exemption from complying with vital and basic labor welfare requirement such as not employing an adult worker for more than nine hours in any working day (Section 54). Exempted factories can implement “working hours reform” and “flexible working hours”, which means they can increasing the daily working hours to 12 hours,
The reason for amending the Act was representation from industries for flexible working hours, “citing the number of benefits it would provide to workers, especially women employees”. The proposed law neither defined the term “flexible working hours” nor did it elaborate on the extent to which women employees would benefit.
Ironically, the Tamil Nadu government had resorted to this move while the central government had not yet notified the implementation of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. The Code, among other things, enables states to provide flexible Hours of work, including overtime and spread-over hours, including intervals of rest, subject to such conditions and restrictions as are applicable to any factory or class of factories. The Code will, in fact, subsume 13 labor Acts including the Factories Act.
Several DMK allies, who had been restrained in their response compared to the last four years on issues such as NEET exemption from mid-2021, custodial torture, prohibition and corruption allegations, became vocal for the first time, demanding the recall of the amendment. For some of these parties, the working class forms the core vote bank. Therefore, he cannot be seen as assisting the leader of his alliance in enacting a law, which surprisingly does not fulfill his intention of empowering factories with necessary safeguards for workers.
Their resolve became apparent when, at a meeting addressed by the three ministers, representatives of trade unions, including the DMK-affiliated Labor Progressive Front, rejected the amendment and threatened to go on strike on 12 May. The trade union representatives said that they had not expected such a thing from the government.
Amid reports that leaders of coalition parties were preparing to meet Mr. Stalin over the issue, the ruling party soon realized that it would not be able to upset him ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections. The DMK was also aware of the damage it could do to the image of a party that decades ago had pioneered pro-labour policies such as the abolition of hand-pulled cycle rickshaws and the establishment of the Tamil Nadu Labor Welfare Board.
In September 2021, the government intended to amend the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, mandating establishments to provide seating facilities for employees.
Celebrating International Labor Day last year at Chennai’s Napier Park, renamed as ‘May Day Park’ by his late father M. Karunanidhi in 1990, Mr Stalin said the DMK government works for the upliftment of workers , not just congratulate them on May Day.
“This is the government of the poor, the common people and the working class,” he said.
By choosing to be flexible in reconsidering the latest policy rather than flexing administrative power to implement it, Mr Stalin has ensured these words continue to fit the bill as another May Day approaches.
(sureshkumar.d@thehindu.co.in)