Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Maruti Suzuki workers dispute

On 27 June, 2013, the International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) released the report entitled, “Merchants of Menace: Repressing workers in India’s new industrial belt, Violations of workers’ and trade union rights at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.”

Here is the press release.

Here is an article by Tehelka covering the report. It contains a version of the events at odds with the official Maruti version. Which version is correct, I have no way of knowing. I just want to highlight a couple of points which are probably not in dispute:

One year on, charges are yet to be framed, but the arrested workers’ application for bail has been rejected by the High Court in Chandigarh in May.

I don't know how it is possible to keep people in jail for a year without charges. Related, but different is this report in the Times of India, which notes that two-thirds of prison population in India consists of under-trials and only one-third is convicts.

"Indiscriminate arrest by police, ignorance of legal rights, delay in trial, reluctance of the court to grant bail and inability of the accused, particularly from weaker sections of society, to provide sureties are some of the reasons for incarceration of large number of people as undertrial prisoners," the official said.

 The second point I want to highlight is the role of contract labour in the dispute.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry brought out a report on Industrial Relations and Contract Labour In India written by its Senior Director, B P Pant. It holds the shift towards contract labour in India as a “key reason for labour unrest in India.” 

 Here is a link to the report by FICCI. Of course FICCI blames the "the archaic and rigid Indian labour laws" for the situation.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Pakistan's elections

EPW has a good article on the Pakistani election, subtitled: "More rejection, less election".

It details the various ills that plague Pakistan, for example the major power cuts which last for 18 hours or more, but concludes that:

But has any party articulated a vision of how to get out of this mess? The answer, sadly, is a resounding no.
 The election was basically an anti-incumbency vote, kicking out the massively corrupt PPP.