Bharat Bandh against anti-worker policies of Centre: CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen

New Delhi: Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Tuesday asserted that Bharat Bandh on January 8 has been called by all 10 Central unions along with different federations and is being organised to protest against "anti-worker policies of Central government".

Speaking to ANI, Sen said, "All 10 central unions along with all national independent federations of central and state governments, bank, defence production and other service sectors have called a strike against anti-worker and anti-national policies of BJP government".

He also stated that they have a 12-point charter of demand which includes equal wage for equal work, including for contractual workers. "Workers are going on strike with 12-point charter of demands. We are demanding equal wage for equal work for contract workers who do same work but receive less than half wage than regular workers", he added.

Meanwhile, services at various bank branches and ATMs are likely to be affected as hundreds of employees will go on a bank strike across the country on Wednesday.

The bank strike is part of the Bharat Bandh call given by trade unions to protest against the labour reforms and economic policies of the Central government, according to reports.The protestors` demand during the Bharat Bandh include that the Centre should drop the proposed labour reforms.

A Bill in this regard was passed and proposes to merge 44 labour laws into four codes -- wages, industrial relations, social security, and safe working conditions.