-The Hindu With labour law reforms set to change industrial relations, trade union responses must include social dialogue too Ten central trade unions (CTUs) have called for a nation-wide strike on November 26, 2020 to condemn what they consider to be the anti-people, and anti-labour economic policies of the government. This follows strikes in the coal and defence sectors protesting privatisation and the corporatisation policies of the government. It is essential to...

-The Hindu The new labour laws are a brutal attack on workers’ ability to safeguard their rights Labour law ‘reform’ has been on the table since 1991 as every government’s favourite solution for economic growth. Yet, there was no consensus between governments, political parties, workers and their trade unions, and employers, on what this meant. Unlike other political formations, the BJP has been in unqualified agreement with employers that the existing labour...

-The Hindu It can be made workable if there is political will and fiscal resources As economies around the world struggle to recover from the double whammy of a pandemic and a lockdown, unemployment is soaring. In India, the land of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the promise of jobs and the politics of unemployment have a long history. Can a citizen demand work as a right, and...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com When millions of workers literally burst on to the scene during the sudden lockdown in India, the entire country was shocked by how vulnerable they seemed. They didn’t have housing, savings, healthcare and rights as employees. In their large numbers, they accounted for the majority of the workforce and yet there was no one to speak for them. The lockdown was expected to be a watershed moment because of this unsettling...

-The Hindu The fundamentals of the game have to change as they currently favour wealthy investors and not workers and tiny enterprises India has an incomes crisis: incomes of people in the lower half of the pyramid are too low. The solutions economists propose are: free up markets, improve productivity, and apply technology. These fundamentals of economics must be re-examined when applied to human work. Three solutions Economists say markets should be freed up...