After land, Cong attacks Modi's labour reforms

Buoyed by its success in forcing the Modi government to drop the amendments to the land law, the Congress on Sunday set its eyes on the NDA move to amend labour laws to make them invester friendly.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul touched upon the plight of labourers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “indifference” to the scores of workers in the unorganised sector.

In his 20-minute speech at the “Kisaan Samman Rally” at the Ramlila Maidan here, Rahul spoke at length of the problems faced by workers in the ship-breaking yards at Alang in Gujarat.

“Modi talks of Make in India, but he does not talk about the labourers. In Alang, the ship-breaking workers are facing problems. The get serious injuries and die while handling hazardous chemicals,” Rahul said, recounting his visit to Gujarat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to replace the country’s highly complicated 44 labour laws with four codes governing industrial relations, wages, safety and welfare.

Modi’s thrust on labour reforms angered trade unions, which went on a day-long strike on September 2 contending that the changes proposed by the government would endanger jobs and make lay-offs easier.

Of the estimated 400 million workforce in the country, barely seven per cent are in the formal or organised sector. The rest constitute the unorganised workforce, which is often deprived of minimum wages and social security.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi also spoke about the plight of the labourers in her short speech. “We will be the impediment in the government’s path if it tries to snatch the rights of workers, if it tries to take land from the tribals and hand it over to a few industrialists,” she said.