Trade unions to protest Labour Code Bills on Aug 2

Ten Central Trade Unions barring RSS-affiliated BMS will stage nationwide protests on August 2 against two labour code bills, which they claimed "totally ignored" reservations raised by workers and are prejudicial to their interests.

The government has introduced Code on Wages Bill and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill in Lok Sabha and the trade unions said they condemn the "bulldozing" of codification of labour laws and other laws in spite of strong objections from the trade union movement.

"The contents of both the Bills totally ignore all the points of oppositions and reservations on various provisions of both the Bills curtailing the rights of the workers and are prejudicial to their interests raised by all the central trade union organisations," they said.

Trade unions INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC along with other independent federations and associations will hold demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of the proposed "anti-worker legislations, ignoring all norms of international labour standards".

The trade unions claimed that these codes would enhance the process of exclusion of workers from the benefits they accrue from the existing laws, by simply raising the threshold level of number of workers for application of those laws.