De-notify Esma for pharma strike, demands trade union

Panaji: All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc) on Saturday opposed the state government’s decision to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) for private pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the state.

Earlier, the government in a notification had invoked the Esma provisions on June 16 and again for six months on October 11 to prevent pharma sector employees from going on strike or holding any form of protest.

The Aituc said that the decision is outright anti-people and an infringement of basic trade union and human rights. It demanded that the Esma notification be de-notified in the interest of the labourers.

“The Aituc is of the firm opinion that the notification prohibiting strike in the pharmaceutical industry is an act of collusion by the Goa government with the pharma companies, purely meant to compromise and trample under-foot the basic trade union rights, right to form trade unions, right to collective-bargaining, and other labour welfare legislations,” the trade union said.

The Aituc and its affiliated unions have decided to protest until the fundamental and democratic rights of the workers in the pharmaceutical companies are restored.