Central Trade Unions have been alleging for a long time that the Modi government has been adopting anti-labour and pro-corporate sector policies. They have been protesting even the four controversial labour codes that the Modi government have brought last year claiming that they are anti-labour. The centre not only claims that the codes are in the interest of the working class, but has been assuring that the interests of the workers will be taken care of while privatising the public sector enterprises. The survey data reveals that the interests of the working class were not protected even in the public sector enterprises.

The quality of job has been deteriorating and also the number of quality jobs. The data published in the survey shows that the number of permanent workers have been reducing and non-permanent workers have been rising since 2015-16. The casual and daily wagers in the state owned enterprises have increased upto 178 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-20. The number of contractual workers rose by 86 per cent during the same period. On the other hand there was a cut in the regular jobs which witnessed a 25 per cent reduction.

The data is sufficient to prove that the policies adopted by Modi government for the public sector and the working class in the name of the national interest of the country has actually been against the working class who are not only loosing quality permanent jobs in the Public Sector but also losing social security available to them. More and more workers are forced to work in temporary jobs. Clearly, the Public Sector Enterprises, are not discharging their constitutional and social obligations, under Modi’s leaderships and policies.

This has been resorted to not because Public Sector Enterprises are performing very badly and struggling for their survival. Rather, according to the Survey, profit of 171 profit-making CPSEs stood at Rs 1,38,112crore in the financial year 2019-20, and loss of 84 loss-making CPSEs was only Rs 44,817 crore. Gross Revenue from operations of 256 operating CPSEs during 2019-20 was Rs 24,61,712crore. Reserves and Surplus of all CPSEs stood at Rs 9,57,579crore as on March 31, 2020. Net worth of all CPSEs was Rs 12,35,706crore as on March 31, 2020. Dividend declared or paid by 105 CPSEs in Financial Year 2019-20 stood at Rs 72,136 crore. Contribution of all CPSEs to Central Exchequer by way of excise duty, custom duty, GST, corporate tax, interest on Central Government loans, dividend, and other duties and taxes stood at Rs 3,76,425 crore in Financial Year 2019-20. Foreign Exchange Earnings of CPSEs through export of goods and services stood at Rs 1,21,756crore in Financial Year 2019-20.

Despite such a high level of performance, sharp decrease in number of permanent jobs and their quality is indeed a matter of great concern for the working class, for which Central Trade Unions are concerned. On the other hand sharp rise in temporary jobs with lower wages in an ominous sign for the working class. Prevalence of non-permanent jobs has been observed almost in all the public sector enterprises and categories, including the high profit making steel, petroleum refineries and marketing, coal, heavy and medium engineering, etc. That is why over 37 per cent of all the employees in the public sector companies were in the non-permanent jobs in the year ending on March 31, 2020, which was almost doubled from close to 19 per cent in the year ending on March 2016.

Workers suffered more in PSEs which are either under government’s disinvestment or under privatisation plan. For example in BPCL, where 28,923 workers, about 72 per cent, were on contract out of the total workers strength of 40,172. In SAIL, about 48 per cent of employees out of 1,33,586 were on contract. In the coal sector, all the eight public sector companies altogether have 23 per cent non-permanent employees out of over 3.5 lakh.

Modi government has big disinvestment and privatisation plans for many of these public sector enterprises. In the Budget 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already laid down a road map to achieve this aim. She had categorically said that the centre will only maintain a “bare minimum” presence in only PSEs in the strategic sectors. Opposition says it privatisation and selling of the public sector companies to private entities, while Modi government says that they are just trying to increase private participation.

The data revealed by the survey confirms the apprehensions of the Central Trade Unions that the Modi government’s policies are anti-labour and have not been protecting interests of the workers. In this backdrop, if the four labour codes are implemented and the public sector companies are privatized, number of quality of jobs will further deteriorate. It will prove to be a deadly cocktail for the working class, because of informalisation, contractualisation, outsourcing, and casualisation of the workforce. (IPA Service)