Make nationwide strike on Feb 12 a success: CITU

Anantapur: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has called upon workers across all sectors to make the nationwide strike scheduled for February 12 a grand success, protesting against the four labour codes introduced by the Union government.

Addressing a district-level CITU meeting at Ganey Naik Bhavan here on Saturday, its Anantapur district general secretary S Nagendra Kumar said the labour codes posed a serious threat to hard-earned workers’ rights achieved through decades of struggle. He alleged that the Central government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had repealed 29 labour laws and consolidated them into four codes to serve corporate interests under the guise of labour reforms. Nagendra said introduction of ‘fixed-term employment’ had weakened job security, while Industrial Relations Code allowed establishments with up to 300 workers to retrench employees or shut down operations without prior government approval, effectively legitimising the ‘hire and fire’ policy.

Lack of clarity on minimum wages, weakening of EPF and ESI implementation, and curtailment of gratuity and social security benefits were also highlighted. He warned that stringent conditions on the right to strike were aimed at silencing workers’ voices.

Drawing parallels with the repeal of the three farm laws following sustained protests, he asserted that united resistance by the working class could also block labour codes.