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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  National job policy, labour reforms on centre-state meeting agenda
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National job policy, labour reforms on centre-state meeting agenda

Centre is seeking to build consensus with states on changing labour laws, employment policy

The government is set to bring in an employment policy. To begin with, the ministry has sought suggestions from industry, trade unions, company associations and the public on the proposed national policy. Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
The government is set to bring in an employment policy. To begin with, the ministry has sought suggestions from industry, trade unions, company associations and the public on the proposed national policy. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: The central government is meeting state labour ministers on Thursday to build a consensus on changing labour laws and formulating an employment policy.

Other than discussing changes in about a dozen-odd labour laws under the central labour commission, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and Directorate General of Mines Safety, the labour ministry would engage the state ministers in developing a national employment policy, two government officials said. They declined to be named.

“A meeting has been convened by Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union minister for labour and employment, with the state labour ministers to discuss the challenges and way forward in the world of work," the labour ministry said in a separate statement.

Besides meeting the state ministers, the government has also asked the state labour secretaries to give presentations on areas of labour law reforms and best practices, the statement said.

“State secretaries will also give presentations on four key areas—labour laws, social security in unorganized and organized sector, and skill development and employment generation," said one of the ministry officials, requesting anonymity.

The official said the National Democratic Alliance government believes that “divestment and development" will be the key focus and labour laws will be a key facilitator in this regard. The second official said that while the minister has already met trade unions earlier this week, he is slated to meet industry representatives on 30 June.

“We have to maintain a balance between growth and welfare. While labour law reforms are critical, labour welfare cannot be ignored. Here state government has a significant role and the government wants to take them along," said the second official. “The states have to be on the same page on job creation."

The government is set to bring in an employment policy. To begin with, the ministry has sought suggestions from industry, trade unions, company associations and the public on the proposed national policy. A background note prepared by the ministry said that despite better economic growth in the past 10 years of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, job creation was below 1%.

“In the last decade, the growth of economy at an annual rate of around 8% was accompanied by a dismal growth in jobs at below 1%," Mint had reported on 20 June. The proportion of people in the labour force declined from 43% in 2004-05 to 39.5% in 2011-12, with a sharp drop in female participation rate from 29% to 22.5%, it had said.

“Employment generation should be the key focus of this government. For that, they have to reform labour laws and give flexibility to industries," said Ravi Wig, president of the industrial relation and human resource committee at PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a lobby group. “He said there is need to cut red tape and make laws which will lead to creating jobs for our youth."

To tackle this, the labour ministry has mooted a plan to bring in single-window compliance of labour laws and give a unique labour ID to individual companies, Mint reported on 23 June. A pilot is set to be launched by the end of October. However, the trade unions are against any reforms that will give power to industries to fire workers.

“We have met the minister and have expressed our reservation against any such move. The laws needs to be worker- friendly," said A.D. Nagpal, secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, a central trade union.

In the trade union meeting, labour minister Tomar had said that the amendments in legislation will be done keeping mind the welfare of the working class.

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Published: 25 Jun 2014, 11:43 PM IST
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