The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has demanded withdrawal of the ‘anti-labour’ policies framed in the four labour codes by the Centre. A protest was organised by employees, owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Ispat Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of BMS, at the Steel Plant Gate near Kurmannapalem on Wednesday. BMS national vice president M. Jagadiswara Rao, Rashtriya Ispat Mazdoor Sangh general secretary S. Radha Krishnan and president Kommineni Srinivasa Rao deplored the policies. They recalled that the triennial national virtual conference of BMS held earlier this month had passed resolutions for the betterment of the labour class.
They said that labour reform does not mean scrapping labour rights. Increasing the duty hours from 8 to 12 hours was exploitation of labour apart from violation of the international standards, set by the ILO, they said.
Pension scheme should be treated as a fundamental right of an employee, who has served an organisation for a long period. The government should allocate budgetary support for the pension scheme. They wondered when an unorganised sector workman was getting a minimum pension of ₹3,000 what was the rationale in declaring ₹1,000 as minimum pension to EPS-95 pensioners.
They also demanded amendment and effective implementation of the Migrant Workmen Act. All migrant labourers should be registered at the national level and issued multi-purpose identity cards, they said.
