Hartals: A dubious distinction Kerala would want to live down
KOCHI: Notwithstanding the fact ‘bandhs’/ ‘hartals’ had been banned in the country since 1997 by various judicial orders or the massive financial losses incurred by the state as a result of the frequent shutdowns, Kerala, which lost very many man-days due to the strikes and lock-outs in the last four years is among the regions hit hard by the bandh/hartal culture, it has emerged. According to a report by the Labour Ministry which was tabled in Parliament, Kerala has lost around 2.1 lakh , 2.11 lakh, 2.94 lakh, and 1.53 lakh (January-October 2017) man-days on account of the lock-out in the state’s industrial sector in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively, while it was 1.71 lakh, 4.04 lakh, 1.65 lakh and 1.37 lakh days during the same period due to general strikes. The state’s industrial sector incurred a loss of `15.15 crore due to the total man-days lost during the 2017 (January-October ) period.
The office of the Labour Commissionerate, Thiruvanthapuram, has revealed as per their estimate the state had lost 4.24 lakh and 3.23 lakh man-days due to lay offs in 2016 and 2017. The annual report compiled by the authorities confirmed the state also lost 1.60 lakh and 95,000 man-days due to strikes in 2015-16 and the 2016-17 period, excluding the strikes like hartals. According to the Labour Ministry report, only Tamil Nadu was ahead of Kerala in the ongoing year in terms of highest number of man-days lost due to strike. However, TN ranked well below Kerala in the last few years in this regard, the report says.
Additional Labour Commissioner S Thulasidharan said the state had witnessed only one major strike, 13 lock-outs and 10 lay offs in the current year. The Labour Department is doing its utmost to sort out the issues pertaining to the labour in the industrial sector. His office made it clear there were only five new lock-outs reported in 2016 and the rest of the lock-outs had been reported in the previous years. However, the lock-outs continued due to several reasons, it was revealed.
The Labour Commissioner’s office also claimed barring the hartals no major strike had been reported from the state in the recent times owing to labour dispute. The shortage of raw materials, production losses and financial crisis suffered by the companies are the main reasons for the lock-outs and lay offs reported in the plantation and cashew sectors, which account for the highest number of man-days lost due to lay offs and lay outs.
Labour and Excise Minister T P Ramakrishnan said the department is trying to reopen some of the industrial units laid off or locked out years ago due to production loss, shortage of raw materials and other issues. The department will hold talks with the Tea company representatives in Munnar this week about resuming operations which had ceased operations around 17 years ago. Similarly, there are attempts to revive the ailing units which had been shuttered due to various reasons years ago, the minister said.