Nawanshahr 13 June- Today here Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), Democratic Workers Federation and Gramin Mazdoor Union Punjab handed over demand letters to Nawanshahr MLA Dr. Nachhatar Pal and Banga MLA Dr. Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi in the name of Chief Minister of Punjab to repeal all the anti-labor changes made in Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act 1958.
Expressing their views on this occasion, IFTU State Press Secretary Jasbir Deep, IFTU District Secretary Parveen Kumar Nirala, District Leader of Gramin Mazdoor Union Kamaljit Sanawa, Hari Ram Rasoolpuri and District President of Democratic Asha Workers and Facilitators Union Shakuntala Saroe said that the amendments made by the Punjab Government in the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act 1958 are anti-labor amendments. Due to this, the workers working in these commercial establishments will be deprived of their rights as per the law ... The increase in daily working hours and overtime is not justified in any way. Increasing the daily wage from 12 hours to 144 hours and overtime from 50 hours is a violation of the decision of the International Labor Organization (ILO), according to which the maximum daily wage would be 8 hours. This was put in place to protect the health, comfort and human rights of the workers. Employers are already not implementing labor laws in these establishments.
Now these changes will further increase the exploitation of workers. Employers will get a free hand to exploit the workers. He said that the Bhagwant Mann government has taken this extremely anti-labor decision and has excluded shops and other business establishments with less than 20 workers from the purview of labor laws. Due to this, the workers working in these business establishments will not get any kind of legal labor rights.
These workers have now been legally deprived of any kind of rights related to working hours, wages, attendance, safety etc. Not only this, the business establishments coming under the purview of this law have also been given great freedom regarding overtime hours.
It is clear from the changes being made in the law regarding working hours that employers are being benefited through them. Today, in the era of rampant inflation, workers in industries and commercial establishments are made to work hard at very low wages/daily wages. In most places, employers make workers work overtime for three to four hours daily.
In this way, employers are openly violating the labor law related to overtime working hours on a large scale. The demand has been repeatedly raised by labor organizations that the wage for an eight-hour working day should be so much that no worker has to work overtime. But the government has not fixed a proper minimum wage, but has changed the law related to overtime working hours in favor of the employers.
He said that his organizations believe that these changes are the beginning of the hidden implementation of the four anti-labor labor codes made by the Modi government. Kiran Dharamkot, Surinder Mirpuri, Satnam Ladi Kot Ranjha, District Secretary of Auto Workers Union Taranjit, President of Street Workers Union Hare Ram, Sarvesh Gupta, Surinder Singh Sanawa were also present on this occasion.