In an investment-friendly move, major trade unions in Kerala have endorsed the CPI(M)-led LDF government's decision to end the practice of nokkukooli. Under the practice, money is paid to unionised workers without them rendering any service for the purpose of allowing non-union workers to finish their task unhindered.
Nokkukooli is widely considered as a product of militant trade unionism that had resulted in frequent altercations between workers and businesspeople.
A decision to end the decades-old practice of loaders taking money without rendering any service would come into affect from May 1, which ironically is Labour Day.
Trade unions extended support to the government proposal at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the capital on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, the chief minister said district collectors would convene a meeting of trade unions to finalise the operationalisation of the decision.
The unions also announced that they would end the practice of supplying workers to establishments, Vijayan said.
There was no complaint about labour in the state from trade and business or no company has shut down due to labour problem in the past one decade in the state, he said.
However, that was not the general impression about the state's labour sector, Vijayan observed.
“Nokkukooli and the supply of workers by unions had tainted the image of the labour sector in the state,” he said.
“The government policy was that workers in each area should get jobs whenever a new industrial enterprise comes up there,” Vijayan said.