The White Paper, intended to provide the background for the replacement of the Industrial Relations Act, has not defused the bomb. If there was indeed a feeling of satisfaction, it was very short-lived. As soon as the trade union leaders examined it more closely, they realised that it didn’t match their expectations.

The minister of Labour, Employment and Industrial relations, Showkutally Soodhun, has thus decided to meet them to explain that the paper is in their interest. Unions will have to give the reasons why they are against the White paper and the changes they would like to see. Anyway, both employers and trade unions have until the end of the year to make their proposals.

But unions have already given publicly the reasons for their discontent. The first contention is the government’s refusal to include the right to strike in the Constitution. The minister considers there is no need for that as trade unionists are “the ones to decide if there should be a strike or not”. The latter do not agree. Radhakrishna Sadien explains: “When it becomes hard to go on strike, even if it is done in a diplomatic way, it amounts to the same thing as to refuse this right.”

<B>Guarantee that it’s not a gimmick</B>

The trade unions want the guarantee that the right to strike will not be just a gimmick. “If this right is included in the Constitution, all the other laws will have to be in accordance with it. No government will be able to change it according to its whims and fancies.”

The promotion of collective negotiation is another sore point. According to the leader of the Government Hindi Teachers’ Union (GHTU), Sutthydeo Tengur, “this type of negotiation mainly aims at weakening the whole movement of trade unions and strengthen the position of employers”. Many unionists also think the White Paper may lead to discrimination and marginalization of some unions. It indeed states that only unions representing more than 50% of employees can become an “exclusive bargaining unit.”

The White Paper also states that employees in key sectors – policemen particularly – still don’t have the right to form a trade union. But the minister is adamant on this issue, “What would happen if policemen could go on strike?”

<B>Private sector lobby</B>

Unions have mentioned several reasons for their total dissatisfaction with the White Paper. Finally, the only issue on which everyone agrees is that the IRA should be repealed. But what is going to replace it? Unions, government and employers seem to have entered a new era of conflict.

Unions say the government don’t want to bother employers and thus produced a White Paper, which doesn’t meet the genuine needs of employees. The latter feel “betrayed”. “I think there has been a lobby from the private sector,” Radhakrishna Sadien asserts.

Finally, the unions think that a Bill would have had more weight than a White Paper. They fear that this is another way of postponing the prospect a new law for industrial relations indefinitely. Otherwise, a lot of discussions should be expected by 30th December.