The Rajya Sabha started a discussion on Wednesday on the working of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. MPs in the Opposition camp urged the Centre to respect the International Labour Organisation conventions (ILO) in which India is also a signatory and repeal the amendments to the labour laws which are against the ILO conventions. The members urged the Centre to reconvene the yearly Indian Labour Convention, which was last held in 2015.

DMK MP and senior trade union leader M Shanmugam initiated the debate. He said the unorganised labourers in the country does not enjoy any of the social security benefits. “What does a labourer need? Job security, wages and social security,” he said and added that only collective bargaining through trade unions help workers to ensure benefits. He said all the 44 labour laws are subsumed into four labour codes and the workers are facing a number of issues in forming trade unions and in collective bargaining since then. “These laws are against helping poor workers,” he said.

‘Promotes contractualisation‘

Shanmugam said the new laws promote contractualisation of permanent jobs. Terms like fixed time employment are introduced to help employers, he said.

“In the name of simplifying the laws, the Centre has changed the labour laws in favour of the employers,” he added. Shanmugam also criticised the decision to reduce the rate of interest on deposits in EPFO.

Intervening in the debate, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said, tripartite consultations are essential to avoid strikes of workers as seen on Monday and Tuesday. “Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said there were tripartite consultations. Where is that consultation when there was no meeting of the Indian Labour Conference called? You have not agreed to the suggestions given during the consultations. Had you given heed to their suggestions, they would not have gone on strike for two days,” Singh said. Yadav intervened and said tripartite consultations were held on the four Labour Codes.

Singh reminded the Centre that the last Indian Labour Conference was held in 2015 and the practice of holding Labour Conference since 1940 provided a platform to employees, employers and government representatives to express their views.

Most of the Opposition members also used the BMS’s statements to attack the Centre. Citing a letter of the BMS written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CPI(M) MP Elamaram Kareem said privatisation is rampant under the Modi Government and the Centre denied even the basic rights of workers.

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