Labour Ministry working on six bills for passage in Winter Session
NEW DELHI: Pushing to
fast track reforms, the Labour Ministry plans to place as many as six bills
before Parliament in the Winter Session starting next month.
"A lot of work
has been done on six legislations under the labour reform process. Ministry is
keen to push all of them for passage in the Winter Session of Parliament next
month," said a source.
They include Child
Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012 and Payment of Bonus
(Amendment) Bill, 2015, which have already been approved by the Cabinet, the
source added.
The ministry has also
completed tripartite consultations on the Labour Code on Industrial Relations,
2015; Small Factories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services)
Bill, 2014 and Labour Code on Wages. These are with Law Ministry for vetting,
the source said.
Once approved, these
bills will be sent to the Cabinet for approval and then to Parliament for
passage.
The ministry will soon
prepare a draft Cabinet proposal on an amendment bill for the Employees'
Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Bill for inter-ministerial
consultation. After that, it will be sent to the Law Ministry and subsequently
to Union Cabinet for approval. Once the mandatory approvals are through, it
will be placed before the Parliament for passage.
Labour
Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had
last month said: "Child Labour Amendment Bill, EPF Bill and Payment of
Bonus Bill would come in Winter Session for passage."
He had also said:
"If time permits we will bring in Code on Wages and Code on industrial
relations. Once again we will go for consultation (on these bills) and then go
to Cabinet to proceed with these legislations." The
Labour Code on Wages seeks to amalgamate and simplify provisions of four laws
-- Minimum Wage Act 1948, Payment of Wages Act 1936, Payment of Bonus Act 1965
and Equal Remuneration Act 1976.
Even as the Labour
Ministry is working to push these bills, the central trade unions are not on
board on the industrial code, small factories bill and EPF amendment
bill.
They have strongly
opposed some of the amendments that include norms related to easing
retrenchment, lay offs and closure of units provision and forming unions under
the proposed New Industrial Relations Code.
The bill allows
companies employing up to 300 workers to lay off staff without seeking official
sanction. At present, industries hiring up to 100 workers are allowed to lay
off without permission.
Besides, the unions
are opposing small factories bill, which exempts units with less than 40
workers from 14 labour laws including ESI and EPF Acts.
That means they can buy health insurance and provident fund schemes for their workers from open market. They need not subscribe to EFPF and ESIC schemes as per the new law.
Unions have also
objected to the proposed EPF amendment bill which seeks to provide an option to
formal sector workers to choose between Employees' Provident Fund Scheme and
New Pension Scheme (NPS).
They are of the
opinion that this will dilute social security net for formal sector workers in
the country. They have also been demanding across the board Rs 15,000 per month
minimum wages.
As many as 10 trade
unions, observed nationwide strike on September 2 against government's proposed
amendments to labour laws through these bills which they termed as anti-worker
and unilateral.
The
ministry wants to push these bill during this Winter Session to support
government's initiatives to improve ease of doing business and 'Make in India'
programme.
Through these reforms,
the government want to push foreign as well as domestic investments in
the country for sustained economic recovery for Asia's third largest
economy.
The Labour Ministry is working on
rationalising the provision of the 44 labour laws into 4-5 codes. At present
the ministry is working on codes on wages, industrial relations, social
security & welfare and safety & working conditions.
Source : The Economic Times
No comments:
Post a Comment