Over 7,500 volunteers representing multi-level marketing
employees and MMEF all over India today rallied before Parliament under the
banner All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) demanding proper law to protect
the interests of the multilevel marketing employees, consumers and the corrupt
and underhand practices of the MNCs.
Inaugurating the rally, veteran
parliamentarian and General Secretary of AITUC declared that that AITUC, all
other unions affiliated to AITUC and himself will be in the forefront along
with MMEF to force the government to bring in immediately the necessary law to
protect the employees. “If you struggle, take the struggle deep down to every
nook and corner of the country and come back to the national capital in larger
numbers, Parliament and the central government will be forced to listen to your
demands and act positively. In India lakhs of educated young people are engaged
in multilevel marketing sector. These employees have been dependent for years
on this sector for meeting their livelihood needs.”
The AITUC leader said that the
multilevel marketing in the name of reaching the consumers quality products at
a cheap price, exploits its employees to the full by denying them all genuine
and accepted workers’ rights. A small share of the profit is being distributed
to the employees in the sector as remuneration without any consideration for
their job security and family’s welfare.
The youngsters are joining this
sector with the belief that the plans and packages worked out by most of the
MNCs, domestic business majors and the newly entering small traders are
generally beneficial both to the employees and the consumers. As a marketing
tactics and with an aim to win over both the employees and consumers, these
companies come out with copies of all kinds of certificates, testimonials and
awards along with photographs to prove that their products were used and
satisfied by people who matter in the society including political leaders,
professors, teachers, doctors and others
The rally, which began from the
Barakambha Road and marched to
Parliament house, was led by EC Satheesan, PV Ashokan, Chidambaram N, V
Sreenivasan, Muben Mohamed, James Mathew,
V R Sreenivasan, Sasidharan, Baby Sebastin, Jairo K James, Deepak Bajan,
Gowran Nehra, ADV Pradeep, Awani Kumar Sharma and TV Stephen. The rally was
stopped by police in front of the Parliament Street police station where it got converted into a public
meeting.
AITUC national secretary and
reception committee chairperson Amarjeet Kaur who presided over the meeting at
Parliament street said that multilevel marketing has today become a reality
everywhere in the world including India. Therefore this sector could not be
just ignored and is growing at a tremendous pace in India too. The sector is
being made fully and legally operational in our neighbouring country China. In
several countries, there is separate law and even a separate ministry to deal
with the sector and those engaged in multilevel marketing including also both
employees and consumers.
She demanded a central government
law to identify and protect the real multilevel marketing companies as well as
the employees involved in the sector. The law must be immediately enacted and
brought into practice so that the employees who have taken MLM as a career can
live with a pride.
She pointed out that the
high-power seven member inter-ministerial committee set up by the Ministry of
Consumer Affairs with nominees from various ministries and the RBI
unfortunately does not have any employee representation. This lacuna will
seriously affect the quality of the fact-finding report, which will recommend
and finally be submitted to the government by August 31, 2012. Therefore we
demand appropriate steps by the government to consult all stakeholders
including the MMEF before drafting thre report.
CPI Rajya Sabha member M P
Achuthan who spoke in detail of the MMEF’s successful struggle in Kerala
assured all help and support to get enacted a proper law. He said that though
each of these companies involved in multilevel marketing has rules and
regulations, they carry out their violations — small and big — most
intelligently and at times even make use of the loopholes in the legal set up
in India.
AITUC deputy leader H Mahadevan, who referred to other
countries and the epmployees’ struggle experience said that even some of the
companies after amassing enough wealth are least bothered about the
consequential outcome of their operations. If need be they do not think twice
to shut down their activities and flee away from the scene, throwing the
employees to the mercy of the public and law enforcing agencies.
Among others who spoke are MMEF-AITUC general secretary E
C Sateesan, AIYF general secretary Aftab Alam Khan, AISF Delhi state president
Kunal Kumar, MMEF leaders from various states and Delhi AITUC leader Babban.
E. C. Satheesan Amarjeet Kaur Chidambaram
N
General Secretary National Secretary National Media Co-ordinator
MMEF-AITUC AITUC MMEF-AITUC
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