Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s efforts to make Kerala an investor friendly destination took a turn for the worse on Wednesday as the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), the trade union wing of the party, making it known that it would not allow the entrepreneurs to hire the employees of their choice to work in the industrial/business establishments.
Anathalavattam Anandan, the Kerala boss of the CITU, the leading militant trade union in the State that controls the entire head load workers in the State said at the capital city that his union would not accept any kind of agreement that denied the workers the right to work, which is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution.
Anandan’s statement came a day after a tripartite agreement between the Kerala Government, the CITU and management of SR Associates, a Kannur based business house signed a contract by which the head load workers owing allegiance to the trade union would have the exclusive right to load and unload heavy materials reaching the business house.
The employees appointed by the management of the company would be allowed to load only small materials which are sold from the establishment.
Rabeeh Mohammed, the owner of SR Associates had told after the signing of the contract that he was pressurized to sign on the dotted line. “I had toiled in West Asian deserts for almost two decades and invested the entire savings of Rs 70 lakh in this business. I was left with only two options; either shut down the business and go back to West Asia or to toe the CPI(M) line. I chose to obey the party diktat,†Mohammed told The Pioneer from Mathamangalam, a party village. He had recruited ten workers offering reasonably fair salary and allowances.
In Kannur district, villages and small towns which are fully controlled by the CPI(M) are known as party villages and there are hundreds of such party villages in the
district.
The dilemma faced by Mohammed made another entrepreneur leave the district and return to UAE. Afzal Kuzhikkad, an expatriate had returned to Mathamangalam and launched a software company AJ Tech IT Solutions which could have grown into a lead software industry in the State. But he was manhandled when he came for shopping at SR Associates and was driven away by the head load
workers.
He shut down the enterprises and returned to UAE on Tuesday after informing his relations and friends that it was safe to be in the oil-rich kingdom than in Kerala.
When it was pointed out to Anandan that the Kerala High Court had ruled that the trade unions and employees were violating all norms of business, he said that his union was not interested in knowing what the court was telling. “Our priority is the rights of workers.
The Court may tell a lot of things because the judges do not understand the pain of the workers,†said Anandan.
Mohammed’s business house remained shut down for weeks because of the agitation launched against it by the workers. Kerala has been seeing exodus of entrepreneurs from the State towards Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana of late. Industries minister P Rajeeve had described the situation in the State a cause of concern.
