Trade union cadres launch indefinite fast to protect temporary workers

Members of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) on Monday launched an indefinite fast demanding that the state government implement the tenets of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act and frame the new model standing order for the welfare of temporary labourers.
Eight AICCTU members led by S Kumarasamy, its national president, started the protest at the office of the Coimbatore District Pricol Workers Welfare Union at Periyanaickenpalayam.
The protesters wanted the government to draft the model standing order to safeguard the welfare of temporary worker had worked for 240 days a year, the worker should be made permanent. The probation period should not be more than three months and of the total permanent workers in a firm, not more than 5% should be apprentices,” it said.
CPI (ML) district secretary MS Velmurugan said the protest will continue till the state holds talks with the members. More than 80% of industrial workers in Tamil Nadu are non-permanent workers, Kumarasamy said earlier. “Our demands are all part of the existing labour laws.”
Source: Times of India