From the start of the 19th century, the most important factor in creating and strengthening unions has been the universal phenomenon of working people coming together to talk about their problems at work and devise solutions based on collective action. This tradition is carried on today by unions all over the world as they discuss employee related issues in their General body meetings, Congresses, Conventions and Workplaces.
Unions today are faced with the effects of unfair globalisation, strident attacks on their existence by a rapidly changing technology in the workplace, expanding informal economies in which people try to make a living as best they can. Learning how to address these and other issues effectively is the key to continuing health and growth of the labour movement. It is through a transformative process of union education, that working people learn to be effective unionist. Trade Union education is an ongoing process by which workers learn how to represent their co-workers at the workplace and in society. It was the labour movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40 hour week, the minimum wages, leave, health insurance, social security, Medicare, Maternity benefits, pension and retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.
In many countries, especially in the developing world, the inability of governments and the private sector to create new jobs is forcing millions of people to find work outside formal structures. The informal economy which covers many activities in the commerce, production and service-sectors has emerged as a solution to the stinging problem of unemployment and under-employment. The resultant employment is characterised by inability, low-income, lack of social protection and the baneful absence of freedom of Association and Collective bargaining. The growing army “of self-employed” or “jig-workers” now account for a large part of our workforce because of the sheer difficulty involved in finding jobs.
Only a few days ago, India completed 76 years of its independence from British rule. Our independence was the result of determined struggle by the people of our country-men, women workers, peasants and all sections of Indian society sacrificing everything including their lives. What did they envision when they courageously fought to oust British colonialism? 76 years is a long enough period to look back and examine if we are on-track to realize the aspirations and dreams of the people who fought the once mightiest empire in the world and won their independence.
As explained by a worker of a textile mill in Bombay who actively participated in the non-cooperation movement, “for workers, ‘SWARAJ’ meant that they would be free from indebtedness, from the inhuman treatment and oppression by the employers.” They expected that the government of free India would enact laws to ensure their wages increased seamlessly, their working conditions improved and the inhuman oppression of workers would be stopped. The working class movements in India pre-date our countries independence and played an important role in giving an impetus to the national movement.
76 years after independence, the process of economic development thus far has been exclusion! Exclusion from the benefits of economic growth, from the impact of physical and social infrastructure expansion; from securing education and income generating opportunities. For most workers laws and rights are a fantasy. Most of them do not even earn the minimum wages which is set just above the hunger levels. The right of minimum wages has been recognised as a Fundamental right by the Supreme Court of India; which has held non-payment of minimum wages to be a violation of Article 23 and therefore declared it to be “forced labour.” Without labour nothing prospers. Raising the minimum wage isn’t just pro-economic growth. Changes are needed to help incomes keep pace with increasing costs of living. The minimum wage is the benchmark rate, and there is nothing that stops an employer from handing out higher wages.
In recent decades, the world of work has been subjected to several waves of transformation. In the face of rising costs of living in many parts of the world, minimum wages fall far too short of securing a dignified living for workers and their families. If employment is to be a mechanism to lift people out of poverty, wage levels must reflect more accurately living costs and productivity gains. We have severe inequalities of wealth in many forms besides incomes: lack of nutrition, adequate housing, access to health care and education. So what has the future in store for the people who toil? The recent minimum wages notified by the government of Goa have been roundly declared to be unscientific, unjustified and unfair. Isn’t it true that the government has failed to take into consideration the unprecedented escalation in the prices of all essential commodities of food, clothing and shelter? The prices of water and electricity tariffs have also increased year after year. Similarly the cost of education, health care, transport and LPG cylinders have also gone beyond the reach of the common and working people.
Raising the minimum wages will help in addressing issues of poverty-alleviation and social inequality and stimulate economic dynamism. The importance of securing minimum wages is growing: As inflation rises, spurred on by surging prices of food and energy, the typical worker has less buying power today than one year ago. Those who come from lower income families have a restricted access to resources such as education and healthcare due to a lack of upward mobility. Wealth has become increasingly concentrated on the top. People at the bottom rung have grown poorer. A fall in income only means a rise in their economic hardship.
Inequality has become the defining feature of the Indian economy. Attention must therefore be directed from Minimum pay to “decent” or “living wages.” Good governance ought to focus on enabling quality of life and work to its people rather than merely securing for them slave like economic subsistence and servitude. The working classes in India face numerous living conditions such as lack of education, health-care and social status. There is an urgent need for the government policies and programmes to help improve their lives and livelihoods of this large sector of society. There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one’s means of livelihood. We must not rest until right livelihood is within the reach of every human being upon this earth we love and cherish. We all have a role to play in achieving this goal.
(The writer is a social scientist and a senior practicing criminal lawyer)
