Tapan Sen, general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on July 24 wrote to the Director General of International Labour Organization, Geneva, about the Union government’s decision to ban industrial action by civil workers of defence production organizations. Over 75% of requirements of defence forces are supplied by these production units, comprising about 44 industrial units and several research institutions. Nearly 80,000 workers are employed in these facilities, fully owned by the government.
The letter to ILO states: “The Central government has been actively moving to privatize this sector in favour of private corporate owners. And in that direction, 41 ordinance factories… are sought to be corporatized in seven entities registered as seven separate entities under the Companies Act.”
When workers decided to go on strike, the government negotiated with them and a settlement was reached which stated that the privatization move would be stalled. The unions withdrew the strike notice. No further calls for strike were issued, but the government, instead of honouring its commitment to workers, has pushed ahead with privatization. The government first issued an ordinance and then later, an Essential Defence Services Bill, on July 22, 2021. This bill prohibits industrial action by unions and workers.
The CITU writes that this violates ILO standards, which guarantee freedom of associations. “This may be treated as a formal complaint against the actions of the Government of India grossly violating the basic principles of labour rights and also the ILO standards,” CITU writes.
In its statement of objects and reason while tabling the bill, the government clearly states that industrial action by workers in defence establishments will become illegal under the proposed law. This bill also provides for debarring fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India. Anyone instigating a strike could be punished with a jail term of up to two years, under the proposed law. There is provision also for dismissal from service. The bill says no suit shall lie against the Central government or its officers for anything done in good faith under this law.
In mobilization against privatization that began in 2019, employees of the ordnance factories have pointed out that their fate would be comparable to that of staff of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). A deliberate strategy to privatize the telecom sector of the Government of India meant that the profitable public sector enterprise was starved and deliberately made unviable; although private players were granted licence for 4G spectrum, the government telecom company was denied it until late 2018.
The Modi government has already outsourced procurement of about 250 items earlier produced by the ordnance factories. The Army was forced to cut down supplies from ordnance factories by 50%.
