No 'nokkukooli' in Kerala from May 1

In an investment-friendly move, central trade unions in Kerala have endorsed the CPM-led government's decision to end 'nokkukooli', under which money paid to workers without rendering any service.

Nokkukooli is widely considered as a product of militant trade unionism that had resulted in frequent altercations between workers and business people. A decision to end the decades-old practice of loaders taking money without rendering any service would come into effect from May 1, Labour Day.

Trade unions extended support to the government proposal at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. In a Facebook post, the Chief Minister said the district collectors would convene a meeting of trade unions to finalise the operation of the decision.

The unions also announced that they would end the practice of supplying workers to establishments, Pinarayi 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, the CM said. Nokkukooli and the supply of workers by unions had tainted the image of the labour sector in the state, he said.

Government policy was that workers in each area should get jobs whenever a new industrial enterprise comes up there, Pinarayi said.

(With PTI inputs)