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Presentation On SEZs, September 2007
Presentation On SEZs, September 2007
A Perspectives presentation
Special economic zones are mushrooming all over the country. This is
despite events like Nandigram and widespread protests by farmers,
activists and a section of economists in the country. To understand why
there has been such large-scale opposition, and why the government is
still continuing with its SEZ policy, we need to understand what is so
‘special’ about these special economic zones.
SEZs blatantly attack whatever little rights labour has in our country
today. In tune with the global domination of finance capital over labour,
they take away from labour even the minimum rights to unionise and
protest. Indeed, SEZs have been declared to be public utility services
i.e. they are considered to be similar to the railways and power
services, indispensable for the daily life of the Indian public. What this
essentially means is that workers working in SEZs would have little
scope to protest, undertake collective bargaining or go on strike
against their employers.
All disputes between the management and labour in a SEZ are decided
by the Development Commissioner, the highest authority within a
particular SEZ. In non-SEZ areas, this is the responsibility of the Labour
Commissioner. Considering that one of the main functions of the
Development Commissioner is to promote the growth and functioning
of his SEZ, it is anyone’s guess what chances the workers have of
getting justice.
Different labour laws like the Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act,
Contract Labour Act and Trade Union Act are relaxed or made
inapplicable in these SEZs. An officer placed under the supervision and
control of the Development Commissioner functions as Registration
Officer, Conciliation Officer, as well as Inspector under the various
labour laws to provide single window services. Quarterly and half
yearly returns which have to be filed under different labour laws, such
as the Workmen’s Compensation Act and Payment of Wages Act, have
to be filed only once in a year to the Development Commissioner in the
SEZ.
Different states, in the race to attract private capital, have gone a step
further. Each state’s SEZ policy promises to ‘simplify’ labour laws and
exempt units and SEZ developers from their mandatory requirements.
Since SEZs are supposed to be the model of development for the rest
of the country, this is the first step for initiating countrywide ‘labour
reforms’ through the back door.
Of course, majority of the workers working in SEZs won’t even come
under the purview of the aforementioned laws. These ‘informal’
employees of the SEZs, working on a contract basis, would never even
have the guarantee of minimum wages, let alone any kind of security
of employment.
The Indian State forgets that labour laws are not a result of its
benevolence, but the product of a long and hard struggle fought by the
international working class movement. Instead of extending labour
laws and social security benefits to the millions of unorganised sector
workers in the country, the State is taking away the basic rights of
even the organised workers in order to augment the profits of private
capital through SEZs.
One of the sections which will definitely lose out in this process is small
business; small capital which does not have the wherewithal to
relocate to the SEZs. Big capital will relocate to SEZs in order to take
advantage of the tax concessions, subsidies and the absence of laws
and regulations. For them, SEZs will be the instruments of privileged
access to the vast domestic markets of India.
Small capital in the non-SEZ Domestic Tariff Areas will suffer the
consequences, even as big capital, aided by the State accumulates
higher and higher profits.
These facts nail the lie that SEZs are meant for promotion of industry
and exports. The government’s claim that SEZs would generate 30
lakh jobs is farcical. These many jobs have not been created in total in
fifteen years since economic liberalisation began in our country. As is
well known, the growth of employment in the entire organised sector in
these fifteen years has been negligible. The total employment in IT and
ITES, the boom sectors of our economy, is only 1.5 million.
CONCLUSION