Bengal may bar govt staff from taking part in union activities

Kalimpong | Mukesh Sharma: West Bengal proposes to bar its 900,000 government employees from taking part in trade union activities of any nature by reintroducing an antiquated British law under which government employees weren’t allowed to form pressure groups.
The Left parties, which ruled West Bengal for 34 years from 1977, in 1980 amended service regulations to give state government employees “full trade union rights, including the right to strike”.
State government employees were allowed to form associations and unions, and such pressure groups for collective bargaining didn’t require any recognition from the administration, according to a clarification issued by the finance department in September 1981. This implied that state government employees in West Bengal could freely form as many pressure groups as they wanted, whereas in industrial units, such bodies require the recognition of the management to legitimately represent workers.
Purnendu Bose, West Bengal’s labour minister, on Tuesday said at the Writers’ Building, the state secretariat, that the government will place before the state cabinet a proposal to withdraw the rights of its employees to form unions.
The 1980 amendment of service regulations by the erstwhile Left Front government was “illegal”, according to Bose and, hence, will be repealed. “Government employees shouldn’t be criticizing the government,” he said.
West Bengal recently withdrew the rights of the state’s police officials to form pressure groups for collective bargaining.
The Left Front and Congress-backed associations of state government workers criticized the proposal.
“The Constitution of India provides freedom of speech and the right to form associations,” said G. Sanjeeva Reddy, president, Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc), the labour arm of the Congress party. “We will challenge it legally.”
Intuc plans to immediately launch a statewide agitation to protest against the proposal, said Shyamal Kumar Mitra, one of its leaders at the Writers’ Building.
There are 57 associations representing state government employees—most of them are affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, which is the labour arm of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The motivation for the move by the Trinamool Congress, which ended the Left Front’s 34-year unbroken rule last year, isn’t immediately clear.
“What is the need for activism if the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) is willing to sort out our problems through discussion,” said Sanjib Pal, general secretary of the Federation of Secretariat Employees, which is backed by the Trinamool Congress.
Those opposing the move said it betrays the Trinamool Congress’ inability to make inroads into West Bengal government employees.
“The move to disband associations of state government employees is completely unconstitutional,” said Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress, which is affiliated to the Communist Party of India.
“The Left parties will collectively decide how to politically oppose this move,” added Dasgupta, a lawmaker at the Centre.if the move is passed it is set to hampered the hills where janmukti morcha strong frontal organisation janmukti karmachari sangatan . janmukti secondary teachers organsiaton, janmukti primary teachers organisation will fill the heat.


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