Centre seeks views on proposed labour law amendments

The Labour Ministry is on the fast lane to usher in labour reforms and has sought comments on the proposed amendments to key Acts within 30 days.

Among the Acts that are sought to be amended are the Factories Act, Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Act, 1988, Minimum Wages Act, the Child Labour regulation Act and the Apprentices Act, 1961.

“The amendments have been arrived at after tripartite discussions,” Labour Secretary Gauri Kumar said on the sidelines of the State Labour Ministers meet here on Thursday.

Earlier, Labour Minister Naresh Singh Tomar told State Labour Ministers to kick-start tripartite consultations at the State level, too. “Better implementation of labour laws and ensuring ease of compliance is one of the priorities of our Government,” he said, adding that while doing this, the interests of the workers as well as industry should be kept in mind.

To rid the industry of ‘inspector raj’, the Ministry is in the process of developing a Web portal and a revised inspection scheme in the Central sphere is also being worked out.

Tomar said while the Centre and States complemented each other, the States were more accountable and responsible for improving the lot of the labour force, which is the country’s “biggest capital”.

He said all States must chalk out programmes to register each and every worker so that benefits reach them, adding that lack of data on the exact number of labour force — organised, unorganised, contract — was hindering implementation of welfare policies.

He sought cooperation from States for also implementing the Inter-State Migrant Workers Act.

Tomar said the Government believed in direct interaction with all stakeholders to usher in labour reforms. “We have had meaningful discussions with trade unions and will be meeting employer organisations on Monday,” he added.

“We have had no discussions yet on investing EPFO funds in the equity market,” the Minister said on the sidelines of the meet, when asked to comment on media reports on the Finance Ministry drafting a new investment pattern for parking up to 30 per cent of the ₹5-lakh crore retirement fund corpus in the equity market.

Trade unions, including the BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, had said they would oppose the proposal ‘tooth and nail’.

The Labour Ministry also urged the States to extend the Employees Provident Fund scheme to contract and construction workers, especially in State public sector units.

COMMENT NOW