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CITU Keralam

Jobs and job security have vanished under Modi's rule: Elamaram Kareem

Jobs and job security have vanished under Modi's rule: Elamaram Kareem

While the central government closes down and privatises public sector undertakings, the state government is coming forward to take them over and run them, said CITU state general secretary Elamaram Kareem. He was inaugurating the state convention organised by the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers to announce the strike, ahead of the statewide strike by central employees on November 15.

After taking power, Narendra Modi announced 'minimum government, maximum governance'. The result has been loose employment relations. Permanent employment has been done away with, outsourcing has spread widely and production has been decentralised. Young people are the victims of a policy that creates unemployment; what awaits them is temporary and contract jobs to which labour laws do not apply. The whole EPF and ESI system is being sabotaged, and pensioners' lives are being handed over to the market. The BMS is not willing to join a united agitation against this. It stays away because of threats from the RSS.

The second UPA government brought the PFRDA Act, and the UDF government implemented provisions based on it in Kerala as well. Once employees lost the statutory pension, life after retirement became uncertain. New recruits did not understand the harm at first, but now they are beginning to understand the problem. There have been big agitations in Kerala against such measures.

Central employees and others must be ready to bring down the BJP government in the general election. Extensive campaign programmes must be organised before the November 15 strike, Elamaram Kareem said.

Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers state president V Sreekumar presided over the convention, and secretary general M Krishnan gave the keynote address. Leaders of various central employees' organisations, P V Rajendran, P K Muraleedharan, P N Soman, Ashalatha Devi, C Krishnakumar, P Sasikumar, K Balakrishnan and G P Pramod, Confederation district chairman Josy K Chirappuram and secretary O C Joy spoke.