AITUC Demands Withdrawal Of Corporatisation of Ordnance Factories

The AITUC the Mother Trade Union of India and the 3rd major Central Trade Union after BMS & INTUC began its 42nd National Conference at Alappuzha in Kerala on 16th of Dec 22 More than 1500 Delegates from through out the country is participating in the conference.

Pampis Kyritsis General Secretary of WFTU addressed the Delegates. The Delegates Session adopted the following Rezolutions moved by C. Srikumar, General Secretary AIDEF & Deputy General Secretary of WFTU.

The resolutions passed are given below for the benefit of the viewers of www.indianpsu.com –

Resolution – 1

Resolution demanding for withdrawal of the unilateral Government decision of Corporatizing the 41 Ordnance Factories under the Ordnance Factory Board into 7 Non viable DPSU’s. The 42 nd National Conference of AITUC held at Alappuzha, Kerala from the 16 th to 20 th of December 2022 has noted with very serious concern, the impact of the BJP Government’s unilateral decision of Corporatization on the 41 Ordnance Factories on National Security and the 76,000 Defence civilian employees. The Government with lot of fan fare has broken the Ordnance Factory Board into multiple PSU’s with the ulterior motive of privatizing or closing down the Ordnance Factories. It is now more than one year after the ill conceived decision of the Government and the Government is deliberately making the nation’s most strategical Defence industry sick by not providing work to more than 50% of the Ordnance Factories and all those work which can be done in the Ordnance Factories are being handed over to private sector.

The Ordnance Factories are the fourth force of the Defence of our Country and are “War Reserve” industry. Destroying the Ordnance Factories to favor the private corporates and liquidating these factories will have serious impact on the National security and Defence preparedness of our country. The 76,000 Defence civilian employees of the 41 Ordnance Factories are subjected to unnecessary mental torture and hardship since they were all kept on deemed deputation in these factories and attempts are being made by the management of the 7 Corporations to tinker with their service conditions.

The AIDEF, BPMS and CDRA the major recognized employees organization have already submitted a joint letter to the Defence Minister exposing the failure of the Government decision in Corporatizing the Ordnance Factories with fact and figures and have demanded to withdraw the Government decision of Corporatization and to restore the status of the Ordnance Factories as a departmental organization. The latest setback is that the Sweden based Stockholm International Peace Research institute has removed the name of Indian Ordnance Factories from the latest list of World’s top 100 Defence manufacturing industries.

AITUC fully support the demand of the employees of 41 Ordnance Factories to withdraw Corporatization and to retain their status as Central Government Employees / Defence Civilian Employees and urges upon the Government of India to reconsider its decision in the interest of National security and Defence preparedness and to withdraw its wrong decision of Corporatizing the Ordnance Factories. AITUC will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Defence Civilian Employees in all their struggle against orporatization and also to save the Defence industry from the present crisis.

Resolution – 2

Resolution demanding for scrapping the no guarantee New Pension Scheme (National Pension System) and to restore the old pension scheme to both the Central Government and State Government Employees!The 42 nd National conference of AITUC held at Alappuzha, Kerala from the 16 th to 20 th of December 2022 has taken a very serious note of the sufferings of the Central Government Employees and State Government employees who are governed under the New Pension Scheme (National Pension System) and who have started now retiring from service. Despite the contribution of 10% of the wages by the employees and 14% especially in the case of Central Government employees by the Government, the affected employees on retirement are getting only a paltry pension of Rs. 2000 to Rs.4000 PM, whereas if the same employees is governed under the defined and guaranteed old pension scheme they must have received Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000 as monthly pension apart from other benefits like Dearness
Relief, 40% computation and restoration of the computed portion after 15 years and increase of pension by 20% after 80 years age etc., None of these benefits are available to the employees governed under the new pension scheme.

Considering the sufferings of the NPS employees 4 state Governments have already withdrawn NPS and have restored the old pension scheme for their employees. However it is unfortunate that the BJP Government at the centre and some of the state governments are not accepting the demand of the employees to withdraw the NPS.

The 42 nd National Conference of AITUC urges upon the Government of India and the various state Governments to immediately scrap the NPS and to restore the old pension scheme, since in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment pension is not a bounty, not an ex gratia and not a gift at the sweet will of the employer, Pension is a fundamental right of the Government employees. The AITUC calls upon the employees of Central Government and state Governments and also their trade unions to relentlessly fight against the no guarantee NPS and AITUC will extend all support and solidarity to the Government employees in their justified struggle for their old age security.

Resolution – 3

Resolution urging the Government of India to fill up the 10 lakh civilian posts lying vacant in the various Ministries / Departments of Central Government and more than 5 lakh post lying vacant in the Central PSU’s! The 42 nd National Conference of AITUC held at Alappuzha, Kerala from the 16 th to 20 th of December 2022 has noted with very serious concern, the prevailing unemployment, under employment and jobloss which has become one of the most crucial issues confronting every section of the working people, for those who are already employed and those who are in such of a job. More than 40 million jobless people are their in our country as per a rough estimate. This number has further increased after the COVID-19 pandemic and the unplanned lock down imposed by the BJP Government. The capitalist system exists on the basis of keeping a large chunk of job seekers as unemployed.

Various reports of the ILO underlines the critical aspect of youth unemployment as a serious offshoot of the crisis. According to a reply given by the Government recently in the Parliament almost 10 lakh civilian posts are remaining unfilled in various Ministries and Departments. This is after abolishing lakhs of post in many Ministries like Defence, Railways etc., similarly more than 5lakh posts are lying vacant in the various public sector undertakings. The present Government is not having any policy to provide job for the unemployed youth of this country. The worst sufferers are the youth from the most socially and economically downtrodden communities like backward class, scheduled caste, and scheduled tribe etc., since the present Government is moving ahead with privatization of Government and public sector organizations and outsourcing of the jobs the situation has further worsened. Even in the most sensitive Armed Forces the Government has introduced contractual / fixed term employment in the name of Agnibath and Agniveer.

AITUC has noted with serious concern on the declining employment generation in the Government sector and the public sector due to large scale privatization and outsourcing. AITUC urges upon the Government of India to immediately take appropriate steps to fillup all the posts lying vacant in all the Central Government Ministries and Departments and also in the various Central public sector undertakings and also to frame a national employment generation policy in consultation with all Central Trade Unions to overcome the crisis of unemployment in our country. AITUC also urges upon the Government to withdraw the Agnibath and Agniveer scheme in the Armed Forces and to start recruitment in the Armed Forces in a regular manner as in the past.

Resolution-4

Resolution urging upon the Government of India to ratify ILO core / fundamental conventions namely Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention 1948 (No.87) and Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949 (No.98)!

The 42 nd National Conference of AITUC held at Alappuzha, Kerala from the 16 th to 20 th of December 2022 has noted with very serious concern, that despite the repeated representation by the Trade Unions to the Government of India, India has not yet ratified the 2 core / fundamental conventions, namely Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention 1948 (No.87) and Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949 (No.98). The flimsy reason for non ratification of ILO conventions No.87 and 98 being putforth by the Government is that there are certain restrictions imposed on the Government employees. According to the Government the ratification of these conventions would involve granting of certain rights that are prohibited under the statutory rules for the Government employees that is the Right to Strike and to openly criticize Government policies etc., Freedom of Association is guaranteed under Article 19(1) (c) of the Constitution of India to “all citizens” including Government employees as well.

Denying these Rights to the Government employees is not acceptable. India being one of the founding member countries of the ILO and also a permanent member of the ILO Governing body since 1922 it is obligatory on the part of the Government of India to ratify the core and fundamental conventions Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention 1948 (No.87) and Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949 (No.98).

The 42 nd National Conference of AITUC urges upon the Government of India to immediately ratify the ILO convention No. 87 and 98 without further delay.