Time limit for deciding on new unions on the anvil

New Delhi: The government plans to make it mandatory for states to recognize or reject new labour unions within 45 days, following a stand-off between workers and management at the Manesar plant of the country’s largest car maker, MarutiSuzuki India Ltd.
State governments, which are empowered to execute laws relating to trade unions and industrial disputes, currently face no time limits for acting on applications to form labour unions.
“We are aware of the problem, and the recent protests at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s Manesar plant have only highlighted the situation emphatically,” said an official in the Union labour ministry, asking not to be identified. “The draft for the changes required in relevant Acts will be in place within a couple of months.”
Asking states to approve or refuse applications for forming new labour unions within a month and a half without fail is crucial, the official said. “You have to work in a time-bound manner. There will be changes both in the Industrial Disputes Act and the Trade Unions Act to put this in place.”
At least 10% of a company’s workforce needs to join hands to form a union or break away from an existing union. A company, too, has to recognize the union after the state labour department does so.
Industry authorities often collude with states to hold up applications for months or have them rejected, said D.L. Sachdeva, secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc).
“In many companies, there are labour unions that are stage-managed by the management. Such pocket unions generally don’t take care of the interests of the large workforce, creating the need for a new union. The Maruti workers’ protest at Manesar is the best example of this. Unless you allow the formation of new unions, the exploitation by the management will continue,” Sachdeva said.
He said the Union government must step in or labour unrest will escalate. “You have to take decision in a time-bound manner to resolve industrial disputes and workers’ unrest.”
If the state labour commissioner rejects an application for forming a new union, applicants can go to an appellate body against it, said another labour ministry official, also on condition of anonymity. “We are exploring whether this body needs to be set up afresh as independent units, or the cases will go to the lower judiciary.”
Authorities understand that the lower judiciary is burdened with a huge backlog of cases, and going to it may not provide us with a solution in time, this official said.
In that case, the new appellate authority will examine whether the rejection by the state labour commission is correct or if it has taken a decision in collusion with the company’s management. “The appellate body will have full authority to overthrow the labour commission’s decision if it finds that the new application has merits.”
The process will be completed in two months, officials said.
The first official cited above said that following the recent anti-corruption protests led by social activist Anna Hazare, it is now imperative to bring transparency to industrial laws.
Two rounds of labour unrest at Maruti’s Manesar plant, first in June and the second in August and September, held up production and cost a revenue loss of Rs. 900 crore, according to the company’s estimate. Its September sales fell 17% compared with a year earlier, Mint reported on Monday, even as most other car makers registered a jump in sales.
The Haryana labour commission has rejected eight applications for the formation of labour unions from various industries in the recent past, said Anil Pawar, a trade union leader working with industrial labourers in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt.
These include the application of Maruti workers and another from workers at Napino Auto and Electronics Ltd, an automobile ancillary manufacturing company.
He said workers can move the labour court, but going there is like “waiting forever”.
“I don’t think there is any problem from our side. Rejection of eight applications in the last couple of years is not a big issue,” said Satwanti Ahlawat, labour commissioner of Haryana.
She said the labour union Act does not specify a time frame for acting on applications for creating unions. “But we have told ourselves that we will complete the procedure in four months.”
Ahlawat also said the protest at Maruti had little to do with the rejection of workers’ application to form a new union. “There might be some undercurrent, but I don’t think this is the reason for the protest.”

Now, officials face penalty if work not done in time

NOIDA: The impact of Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption is finally being felt at the Noida Authority. The Authority has announced its decision to revive and implement its Citizen's Charter that was drawn in the year 2007.
Starting Monday, delay in completing an official work within a defined timeframe could mean punishment for Noida Authority officials. "Under the conditions of the Charter, officials are bound to give feedback to an applicant within the stipulated timeframe, failing which they would face serious consequences," said Noida Authority chairman and CEO Balwinder Kumar. "We are committed to provide efficient and prompt services to our allottees and citizens. We hope that, on their part, residents earnestly respond and reciprocate in a positive way to help us make Noida special," added Kumar.
In order to curb the rising menace of corruption and to bring transparency in the working pattern of the Authority, a former CEO of the Noida Authority had introduced the citizen charter in 2007. The aim was to ensure better standards of service and to respond and reciprocate in a positive way to the issues concerning the common man. "The objective is to make the administration simple, transparent, accountable and responsive," Kumar said.
Setting deadlines by revamping the earlier Charter, Kumar has set the maximum time for completion of a task in any department of the Authority at one week. Only permission for amalgamation of industrial plots would be allowed to be completed in 15 days, while the conversion of land and change in land use could take up to 30 days. The Charter makes it a right of every citizen to obtain time-bound delivery of services from the Authority.
"The idea is to make the lower bureaucracy accountable to the citizenry. Moreover, most works should not take more than 1-3 days to complete," said the CCEO. "If a civic official does not fulfill the stipulated timeframe, he will be held guilty and punished as per rules. The amendment was done to bring effectiveness and efficiency in the administration," he added.
The Citizens' Charter is now displayed outside every department of the Noida Authority. As per the charter, no important file will be kept pending with any officer or employee in any department of the Noida Authority for more than seven working days. The charter includes a list of services to be provided to the common man and the timeframe within which they need to be completed. All applications need to be addressed to the concerned heads of various departments who will comply by the Charter within the fixed number of working days. "People are requested to contact the concerned authorities in case of any non-compliance of the Charter," said Kumar.

Anna Hazare to bless Bundelkhand Congress

LUCKNOW: The battle for Budelkhand is all set to hot up with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare throwing his weight behind the Bundelkhand Congress, an outfit launched by actor-turned-political activist Raja Bundela. On Bundela's invitation, Anna is expected to address three public meetings in the region in December, apart from scanning and choosing suitable candidates for the two-month-old party.
With migration rate of 63% and 590 reported cases of suicides, Bundlekhand has witnessed a fierce turf war between the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress over the past four years. Thing have peaked last month after Samajwadi Party also threw its hat in the ring with party's state chief Akhilesh Yadav touring the region extensively. Bundela's fledgling party hopes to highlight the graft, affecting various packages and projects including the MNREGS and make a dent in the divided and confused vote bank.
Three districts - Jhansi, Chitrakoot and Banda - have been shortlisted so far, Bundela told TOI. "However the final decision will be taken during the core team's visit next month," he said. Bundela had parted ways with the Congress party a year ago. Having spearheaded a campaign for separate Bundelkhand, he now adds separate Purvanchal, Vidarbha and Telengana to his wishlist.
The strategy would differ in each, he pointed out. Unlike the Budelkhand, where his outfit hopes to contest all 37 seats, in Purvanchal, it will confine itself to select constituencies to make a debut, he said. Though corruption would be the running theme in both the areas, in Purvanchal, health concern would top the agenda. "The focus would mainly be on Japanese encephalitis and the havoc it has caused over the past decades," he said. "JE menace affects at least 17 districts in the eastern belt and has claimed 10,000 lives over the past decade, but could never become a serious issue for any of the major political parties in UP .
Apart from paying lip sympathy to the cause and fooling the gullible masses by false promises during the poll time, none has bothered to demand or frame a blueprint to fight it off, he said.
"We have decided to go region-specific and to micro levels," he said. "We don't have muscle or money power but we do have sincerity of purpose which counts after Anna's advent on the scene," he added.