Calcutta, Nov. 7: Jyoti Basu told a Citu rally today that the IT industry should be treated as an essential service and strikes and other trade union activities should not be “a day-to-day affair”.

“Employees in the IT sector have every right to form unions but, at the same time, it should be treated as an essential service. Hence, they should not resort to strikes whenever they want to,” the CPM patriarch said.

State Citu president Shyamal Chakraborty, transport minister Subhas Chakraborty and CPM MP Amitava Nandi were among those present at the open session of Citu’s North 24-Parganas district unit.

Citu leaders in Delhi have been insisting that IT should not be spared during the December 14 bandh called by the Left unions, but the Bengal leaders have yet to finalise their stand.

Basu is a Citu functionary himself. Stepping out of a party secretariat meeting in Calcutta last week, Basu had backed chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s bid to treat IT as an essential service and keep the industry running even during shutdowns.

Shyamal Chakraborty said IT companies treat employees inhumanly, sometimes making them work 18 hours a day.