The Hindu : 'SC verdict denies basic right of workers'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 07, 2003

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'SC verdict denies basic right of workers'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 6. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has described as unprecedented the Supreme Court judgment that said the Government employees and trade unions had no right to go on strike.

This judgment in one stroke deprived lakhs of Government employees of their basic right to organise and resort to strike. It was contrary to the fundamental rights in the Constitution and the ILO conventions to which India was a party, a statement by the CPI (M) politburo said here today.

It said the ruling made `unwarranted assertions' against the political parties and organisations that sought to register the protest of people suffering severe socio-economic oppression. Instead of safeguarding the rights of citizens, the judgment had more or less endorsed the ``draconian ordinance'' amending the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act, the statement said.

"It is unfortunate that the highest court in the country, which is expected to uphold basic rights and check arbitrary State actions against citizens, has come out with such a retrograde judgment. The democratic forces in the country will find this judgment unacceptable," it said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party said it would study the judgment before commenting on it. "The BJP believes law should be labour-friendly but development and productivity should not be allowed to suffer," its spokesperson, V.K. Malhotra, told reporters.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary, D. Raja, demanded its review, describing the order as ``unacceptable and aimed at scuttling the workers' and employees' legitimate activities and democratic rights''.

"It will hamper any efforts for collective bargaining, as strike is the last action the worker resorts to," he told The Hindu.

Expressing "deep shock" over the judgment, the central trade unions have decided to chalk out a programme in defence of the basic right of the working class during a national convention to be held shortly.

"At no point of time in the history of independent India was the right to strike by the Government employees questioned by the judiciary at any level. In fact, the Central and State employees had exercised the right of strike on many occasions in the past," a statement issued by the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary, Gurudas Das Gupta, said here today.

The right to strike is sacrosanct and in consonance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India, he said, adding that it also formed part of the International Labour Organisation Convention.

The judgment struck hard at the fundamental democratic rights of the toiling people of the country, said the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), while reacting to the court directive imposing a blanket ban on the "right to strike". The CITU secretary, Swadesh Dev Roye, said in a statement: "The Government at the Centre is considering the question of amendment of labour laws and the trade union movement of the country has taken a concrete position."

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