The Essential Defence Services Bill defines the terms “essential defence services” and “strike”, empowers the central government to prohibit strikes in essential defence services and provides for disciplinary action, including dismissal, against employees participating in strike. What will be the holding pattern of these new entities? Is this the route to eventual privatisation of defence production? Answers to these and similar questions are not yet forthcoming. The June ordinance was necessitated as the workers in the ordnance factories engaged in producing military equipment and hardware, operating under the Defence Ministry, threatened to go on an indefinite strike against the Narendra Modi government’s decision to convert the Ordnance Factory Board into a government-owned corporate entity or entities under the Companies Act 1913. The Bill seeks to replace the ordinance issued in June this year.
Centre of Indian Trade Union has even threatened to move the Supreme Court and the ILO. Central trade unions have termed the Bill draconian and alleged that its provisions violate the International Labour Organization’s principles on the right to strike. Critics of the Bill have castigated both the contents of the legislation and the undemocratic manner in which it was passed. What is all the din about the Essential Defence Services Bill that was recently passed in the Lok Sabha? The Bill was passed by voice vote without any debate, amid noisy protests from the Opposition benches.
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