The Hindu       04.02.2011

BMC casual employees defer cease-work agitation plan

Striking casual employees and sanitary workers of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) deferred their cease work agitation from Thursday.

This decision came as a respite for the city which is going to host sixth All India Telugu Conference to be inaugurated from Friday, jointly by the Chief Minsters of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The cease work agitation of these temporary employees and sanitary workers from Tuesday had started to affect the sanitary condition of the city.

According to president of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation Casual Employees Association, Prashant Kumar Behera, they called off their cease work agitation following a decision of the BMC authorities to provide them extra allowance of Rs.1,000 per month.

There are around 560 casual employees in the BMC who had started agitation demanding regularisation of their posts and then to be declared permanent employees. Adviser of the association, E.Suryaprakash Rao said they had demanded payment of an extra allowance of Rs.1,000 to each of them till they were made permanent staff of the BMC. The BMC authorities had declared that they had started the process with the State government to regularise the casual employees.

The decision to provide extra allowance of Rs.1,000 per month to each of the temporary employees was taken at an emergency meeting of the Establishment Committee of the BMC. As per a notification made by the Commissioner of the BMC, the standing committee has resolved to provide this incentive allowance of Rs.1,000 per month to the temporary workers from own funds of the BMC. This resolution would be placed in the next corporation meeting for approval.

Mr. Rao said as this notification showed some silver linings they preferred to defer their strike not make the common citizens of the city suffer. “But we have taken decision to restart our cease work agitation if the promises made by the BMC authorities was not fulfilled”, Mr. Rao said.

The Hindu      02.02.2011

Draft prepared to deal with urban unemployment

Dealing with the problem of urban unemployment, Hazards Centre and civil society organisations along with Central trade unions have come out with a draft for a National Urban Right to Work Act.

After consultations and studies held among representatives of different organisations it was agreed that urban employment was distinctly different from rural livelihoods. Three broad categories of work in the urban areas were identified -- wage employment, self-employment and under or unemployment. The organisations also felt the need to emphasise “Right to Work” rather than an employment guarantee scheme like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and to specify the “living wages” that every worker should be entitled to.

“The NREGA completes five years on February 2 this year…[but] ironically, it is the implementing agencies that are trying to undermine it,” said Nikhil Dey of Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan, calling attention to the lack of a similar scheme for urban areas.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Hazards Centre director Dunu Roy said: “In urban areas, the unorganised sector forms a major part [of employment], but is not covered by the Labour Act. So the work they do is broadly considered illegal.”

All India Trade Union Congress secretary Satya Narayan Thakur stressed the need for legal identity of the informal sector and suggested State-level conferences on the lines of the National Labour Conference be held on a monthly basis.

The proposed draft says the “Right to Work” should be recognised and legislated as a Fundamental Right; complementary laws should be put in place to provide living wages and social security; provision of   secure shelter near work should be a necessity for the urban poor; Government must assist community based self-help programmes; norms for planning livelihoods and shelter should be put in place, which require three basic elements of legal credit, space, and tenure; and finally, there should be accountability and accessible grievance redressal mechanisms.

Mr. Roy said city-centric planning should be socially and environmentally sustainable. The draft talks about a labour card issued irrespective of the trade of work, to establish “worker identity” and should be recognized in both urban and rural areas.