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Labour reforms will create quality jobs: Bandaru Dattatreya

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Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday reiterated the government’s resolve to pursue labour reforms in a manner that will lead to creation of quality jobs, seeking to dismiss criticism that the BJP-led NDA government has presided over three years of jobless growth in the country.
"Labour reforms are on the agenda. Group of ministers has cleared the wage code. This will now go to the Cabinet and will come up in the next session of Parliament," Dattatreya said while recounting his ministry’s achievements over the past three years.

Highlighting the combined efforts of 23 ministries in imparting skills training to 1.25-crore people, Dattatreya said, "Employment generation is our top priority. So far six lakh jobs have been created under the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana and going forward, we aim to give jobs to 50 lakh youths in the country."
 
The minister said that in the next few months, the labour ministry will bring Anganwadi and Asha workers under the social security net while launching the U-WIN (Unorganised Workers Identification Number) cards for 40-crore workers. "This will help establish a unique identity for all of them while helping them avail social security schemes such as Atal Pension Yojana," Dattatreya said.
 
Earlier in the day, at the start of a three-hour long event to mark the three years of Narendra Modi government, labour secretary M Sathiyavathy said the labour ministry has outpaced other ministries as far as passage of legislations is concerned. In the past three years, the ministry has overseen the passage of amendment to Child Labour Regulation Act, the Employees Compensation Act, the Bonus Amendment Act and the Maternity Benefit Act, which it said benefited different sections of the society ..


Besides, the ministry has significantly reduced the burden of compliance and is pursuing amalgamation of 44 labour laws in four codes to further enhance the ease of doing business in the country.

While outlining the achievements of labour ministry since the Modi government assumed office, Sathiyavathy said that employees should continue their faith in the Employees Provident Fund Organisation since it gives maximum rate of return on investment. "The central board of trustees of EPFO had last week decided to increase EPFO investment in exchange traded funds from 10% to 15%. This will fetch better returns to workers," she said, reiterating that investments in ETFs are completely safe and risk free

The government has given employees the option to invest in National Pension Scheme (NPS) alongside the EPFO. However, the NPS is yet to yield much results because most employees continue to favour the EPFO.

Economic Times New Delhi, 30th May 2017

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