Nearly 60 million workers across India, roughly equivalent to the entire population of France, will go on strike on Wednesday to protest against economic reforms, labour leaders said on Monday.

Their demands include a halt to privatisation and freer imports. Unions are also opposing a proposed amendment to labour laws, which would make it easier for employers to fire workers and shut down businesses.

The one-day work stoppage would affect government offices and businesses ranging from banks, insurance firms, oil refiners and coal mining. Unionised workers in small industries are also expected to joint the protest.

"This is only a prelude," said Tapan Sen, national secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in New Delhi. "We are planning further action as there is a need to build up opposition against the government's policies."

Reforms to open up the economy which began in the early 1990s have often run into opposition from unions fearing job losses and politicians seeking to retain control over state-run firms.

The government's reforms programme is already hampered by political considerations in the run-up to general elections due next year.

Some analysts say aggressive reforms could help the Indian economy, Asia's third-largest and home to one-sixth of the world's population, to expand by nearly 10 per cent a year from an average five-to-six per cent through most of the past decade.

"Around 2 crore (20 million) people are employed in the organised sector and 5-6 crores (50-60 million) in the unorganised sector," Sen said. "Around 75 per cent of this work force will join the strike."

CITU itself has a membership of around 35 lakh (3.5 million). The rival Indian National Trade Unions Congress, which has about 80 lakh (eight million) members, will not take part in the strike.

"We believe these issues should be settled in parliament and not by a strike by workers," said Chandidas Sinha, its secretary.

Second banking strike

Wednesday's strike would be the second in a month for the banking sector after junior and middle management officials demanded higher wages on May 2.

"We expect around 95 per cent of banking staff will not work on Wednesday," said Rajen Nagar, treasurer of the All India Bank Employees' Association.

The association is estimated to have around 500,000 members out of an industry strength of around 800,000.

One senior banker said the strike's impact was likely to be mixed. "Money market and government securities deals may not be hit much as traders can strike deals for different dates. But there will be impact in the sense that clearing of cheques will be delayed by one day," he said.

Bankers estimate that an average of around Rs 80 billion ($1.7 billion) of cheques pass through the clearing house in the financial hub of Mumbai every day.