TUs NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR INDUSTRIAL SLOWDOWN

ABOUT a week ago, the Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by 10 trade unions seeking directions the law on minimum wages be applied to domestic workers.

- GURBIR SINGH

The petition contended failure to pay minimum wages as defined in the 1948 Minimum Wages Act was not only a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution protecting the Right to Life, but also amounted to ‘forced labour’ forbidden by Article 23.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi chose to look away. In their order the bench stated it was for the executive and legislative arms of government to consider and implement minimum wages, though it did advise state government to look into the grievances of domestic workers.

This has to be seen in the context of the nonbinding National Floor-Level Minimum Wage remaining unchanged since 2017. Without factoring in inflation, even when implemented, real wages for millions of daily workers have eroded 5% every year.

To sidestep defining and enforcing the law to protect perhaps the most exploited and abused workers is indeed unfortunate. It is no secret domestic workers, most of them women, labour in the worst of conditions without any right to a living wage, leave or rest periods. The court did not stop there. It castigated trade unions for slowing down industrial growth and opposing structural changes and reforms, which in turn discourages investment.

Unions are disappearing

Blaming trade unions, rendered toothless in recent years, for slow industrial growth is indeed barking up the wrong tree. Predictably, it has let loose a barrage of criticism, especially from left wing and liberal quarters.