Trade unions

The recent Chennai Labour Court verdict puts the focus back on the applicability of labour laws for the information technology sector. The dominant narrative is that labour laws do not cover the IT sector employees. However, the recent verdict shows that the laws related to retrenchment are applicable to this industry. It also underscores the importance of trade unions and their formation for safeguarding the rights of the IT workers.

An econometric analysis has been done to identify the causes of occurrences of disputes, strikes, and lockouts in the Indian textile industry. The relative shares of strikes and lockouts in the pre- and post-liberalisation periods for both the public and the private sectors have been assessed and analysed. The incidence and impact of these disputes have also been explored, revealing significant details about the changes in the relationship of disputes, strikes, and lockouts with their determinants in the textile industry.

The National Democratic Alliance government released an early draft of a bill attempting to codify the statutes dealing with industrial relations, that is, the Trade Unions Act, 1926, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and Industrial Employment (Standing Orders)Act, 1946. The Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2015, is one of the three labour codes the government is working on to consolidate all the important labour legislation. It is important to analyse the text of the 2015 bill when the ruling party’s own affiliate, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, protests against the proposed bill.

The closure of Nokia's mobile phone assembly plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, just eight years after it commenced production, illustrates how corporations can quit operations at a point when it is no longer profitable for them to continue, while the impact of such closures on workers is profound. The special economic zones policy of the state actively promoted corporate-led industrialisation promising employment, and creating aspirations among young workers. There was no accountability or labour-centred exit policies factored into the state's industrial policies when state governments welcomed private investments. With the closure of Nokia, not only have promises been broken, but its workers and supply companies have lost their livelihoods and future possibilities of work. 

General strikes are important political interventions allowing for workers' voices to be heard.