-Rameshwar Dutta/ 24.4.2016
Recently, Bengaluru had witnessed a sudden upsurge of
more than one lakh garment workers. The outburst appeared as a bolt out of the
blue. Magnitude and intensity of the protests was unprecedented, at least in over
a decade.
The garment workers, vast majority of which were
women, had been protesting recent amendments in the Rules under Employees’ Provident
Fund Act. The amendment stealthily introduced by the central government, vide
notification of February 10, virtually blocked the withdrawal of employers’
contribution to the employees’ provident fund, that comes around 3.67% of the
basic salary of a workman, till the workman attains the age of 58 years. For
long, the central government had been eyeing the huge corpus of provident fund
contributions as long term investment chunk for corporates. The amendment was
part of a whole series of labour reforms, that remains in the offing.
