Members of the Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) staged a dharna in front of the District Offices Complex here on Thursday urging the Union government to “Save the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, and to protect the Construction Workers Board”.
Addressing the protestors, Balakrishna Shetty, labour leader, said that the amendments brought in by the Modi government to 44 labour laws were all in favour of owners. These amendments would hit the welfare of the construction workers.
The new measures would lead to the Construction Workers Act 1996 being replaced.
The role of the proposed “Advisory Board” would be limited to advising and not taking decisions as was hitherto the case.
While both organised and unorganised workers had to register their names with the new State Welfare Board, this registration was not compulsory. The workers could get registered after they reached 14 years in service. But this would encourage child labour. These boards would not have one-third representation from the labour class, Mr. Shetty said.
Shekhar Bangera, Dayananda Kotian, Ganesh Naik, U. Das Bhandary, Suresh Kallagar, and Jagadesh Achary, labour leaders, were present.