No nokku kooli in Kerala from May 1

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An official release from the Chief Minister's office said that trade unions had offered full support to the state government’s move to end ‘nokku kooli’ in the state from May 1.  The backing of the unions was secured at a meeting of trade union leaders convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Thursday. During the meeting the unions also agreed to end the practice of forcing new ventures to recruit workers they provide from May 1. The Chief Minister said that local residents, and not the nominees of trade unions, should get priority when a new project or industry begins recruitment.

The district collectors have also been asked to convene a meeting of district-level trade union leaders before May 1. The latest decisions have come close on the heels of the Chief Minister’s recent statement in the Assembly that the state would put an end to the tyranny of labour, especially the pressure tactics employed by labour unions like 'nokku kooli, planting of party flags on private plots (which had led to the alleged suicide of an entrepreneur in Koollam district), and forcing entrepreneurs to recruit party workers.

The official statement said that even while putting an end to labour tyranny, the state government would explore ways to assist workers who lose their jobs to mechanisation. The Chief Minister exhorted trade unions leaders to cooperate in erasing the general perception that the state was a place of labour highhandedness. Labour minister T P Ramakrishnan, too, was present.

The union leaders  who attended the  meeting included Anathalavattom Anandan and K Chandran Pillai (CITU), R Chandrasekharan and Varkala Kahar (INTUC), K S Indusekharan Nair (AITUC), G Maheen Aboobakker (STU), G Sugunan (HMS), G K Ajith and Sivaji Sudarshan (BMS), Ezhukone Sathyan (KTUC-J), Vinobha Thaha (UTUC, and Sonia (SEWA).