Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Splinter trade unions threaten to go on strike

The splinter trade unions affiliated to ruling UCPN-Maoist and Tarai-based parties today threatened to go on indefinite strike from July 31 to pressurise the government in implementing of minimum wage.
At a time, when the country's manufacturing sector has been looking down and investors are slowly turning into traders, some 10 trade unions today jointly gave the government an ultimatum starting their protest from July 21.
"We will continue our protest programmes in peaceful manner from July 21 to July 30," said splinter-ANTUF president Badri Bajgain, who is said to be nead to UCPN-Maoist vice president Mohan Vaidya 'Kiran'.
"If we do not get the raised salary according to April 16 agreement, we will go on indefinite strike from July 31," he said, claiming that the April 16 agreement among government, the employers and trade unions was authentic.
However, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Suraj Vaidya said that the employers body recognise only the agreement of March 24. "The April 16 agreement was unilateral decision of the government," Vaidya added.He asked the government to immediately call the meeting of Labour Coordination Committee and settle the issue at the earliest. "We have no issues with the trade unions," he said, asking the government to settle the dispute through the committee as soon as possible.Frequent labour unrest coupled with energy crisis have already caused much loss to the industrial sector increasing the cost of production and loosing competitiveness of domestic product," Vaidya added.
According to the Central Bureau of Statics, the contribution of manufacturing sector has dropped and it has posted a growth of only 1.5 per cent in the fiscal year 2010-11.
Sensing that the county is fast losing competitiveness in manufacturing, the employers and employee came together on March 24 -- after a series of discussions -- to the agreement to hike the minimum wage of employees.The three largest trade unions -- All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF), General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) and Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) -- and the FNCCI had signed an 11-point agreement to hike salary to Rs 6,100 from the earlier Rs 4,600 on March 24.
Apart from the salary hike on March 24, they had agreed on 'hire and fire', 'No work, No Pay', social security for the employees and declaring next four years as industrial peace years barring strikes in the industrial sector.
However, the 10 splinter trade unions did not accept the agreement blaming the largest trade unions for siding with employers.They pressurised the government and on April 16 entered into another agreement with Ministry of Labour and Transport Management that hiked the minimum wage to Rs 6,200, sans 'hire and fire', 'No work, No Pay' and social security.
The government also authenticated the April 16 deal by publishing it in the national gazette on May 23. The new deal has only endorsed five of 11-point agreement reached on March 24 between the three major trade unions and the umbrella organisation of Nepali private sector. Claiming that the 11-point agreement of March 24 is in favour of workers, the FNCCI moved to the Court for stay order against the government Gazette. The Court also granted stay order in favour of the employers.
"The government and 10 trade unions have also moved to Court to vacate the Stay order," Bajgain said, adding that the Court has fixed hearing for July 31.
The 10 splinter trade unions that claim to have support of majority of the workers also seem to pressurise the Court as they have declared to go on indefinite strike from the same day, when they have hearing.
However, the three major trade unions are still in favour of March 24 agreement, though the minor trade unions seem to be up in arms.

No comments: