“The Labour Ministry is going slow on labour reforms in view of the government’s focus on job creation and safeguarding workers’ rights,”
Two key labour reform bills (Industrial Relations Code and Small Factories Bill) aimed at easing business processes may not come up in the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning next month while legislation on populist measures could be introduced including - Maternity Benefit Bill, Employees’ Compensation Bill,
Employees’ Provident Fund Amendment Bill and Child Labour Bill to provide more facilities and benefits to workers and safeguard their rights.
Highlights
- The Maternity Benefit Bill seeks to enhance maternity leave to 26 weeks from existing 12 weeks. The Employees’ Compensation Bill aims to enhance maximum compensation amount in case of any injury to workers without going to high courts.
- The EPF Bill seeks to reduce the threshold for coverage of firms under the social security scheme run by retirement fund body EPFO to 10 workers from existing 20 workers. This is expected to cover 50 lakh more workers under EPFO schemes.
- The Child Labour Bill, which is already pending in Parliament, can be passed during this session. It seeks to prohibit employing children below 14 years in all occupations.
The Industrial Code Bill combines Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Trade Unions Act, 1926, and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
The provision relating to easing retrenchment, lay off and closure norms and tougher rules for forming unions in the proposed bill has led to uproar by central trade unions.
They went on nationwide strike on September 2, 2015 to protest against proposed amendments to labour laws to improve ease of doing business including through Industrial Code and Small Factories Bill.
The Small Factories Bill aims to improve ease of doing business and create an ecosystem for encouraging small businesses.
It seeks to exempt small units with less than 40 workers from tedious compliance of 14 labour laws including Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act and Employees State Insurance (ESI)Act.
As per the Bill, such units can buy health insurance and provident funds products available in the market instead of subscribing to the mandatory social sector schemes of Employees State Insurance Corporation and Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Shared by - Haridas P A, +haridas pa, AB Mauri India Pvt Ltd, Manager HR & Admn
