Labour Union & communist Policy

It is important to take a perspective of the Left Parties in India.

The main strength of left parties is their support for the workers and labor of India. However one must understand whether this is still relevant today as it was when the trade unions were first started.

Trade or Labour unions was started in London, UK, in an age when workers where uneducated and exploited by employers. These workers were paid extremely low wages and were overworked.
Lack of education, overbearing employers were factors that make unions necessary. Today, with improved education standards and access to information resources, labor unions are losing their significance.

Further, the world has accepted capitalism and thus the Hire & Fire policy. However, standards have improved at work and culture. If one looks deep at the attrition rate these days, it is mainly due to job switching by employees rather than retrenchment and VRS. Salaries are fixed after negotiation and minimum wage laws ensure that a set standard is maintained at the bottom.

Recently, there was a statement by the Left parties to stop incentives to higher-ranking officials of Oil PSUs along with a demand for trade unions for BPO workers. However, I feel this would have far-reaching negative effects and the statement by the Left was made without thinking.

In today's competitive environment if a Govt PSU is not going to pay higher it would face exodus of employees and in BPO sector already non-voice jobs are starting to flow to Indonesia. When a communist country like China can have a flexible labour policy, it is amazing that political bosses who have failed to create enough jobs themselves would want to make statement.

If the Left cannot do good then it should refrain from destabilizing any good that is happening without its intervention.

Now we have to read a small story http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/ this story of George Orwell Animal Farm (1945) - satirical allegory of the Russian Revolution, particularly directed against Stalin's Russia. After you read this, you will understand why Communist Russia failed, whereas China, another Communist nation, was fast in changing its strategy and growing with great vision.