Friday, November 28, 2014

Labour Laws Amendment Bill passed in the #Parliament

The Lok Sabha has passed the Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill, 2014 today.
The Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge), Bandaru Dattatreya said that the Bill is a social security measure. It simplifies procedures regarding engaging labours. The main purpose of bringing the Bill is transparency, accountability and proper enforcement. He said the EPF Universal Account Number will be a major benefit as it affords portability, transparency and efficiency. He asserted that the Government was not at all compromising on the interest of workers and the legislation was not meant to give exemption to any establishment.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after rejection of amendments moved by Saugata Roy (TMC).TMC, Congress and CPI-M opposed the bill.
Saugata Roy of TMC opposed the bill, terming it against the interest of workers when their rights are already not being "protected" especially in small scale industries.
He agreed with the need for making labour laws more simple and urged government to give exemption to those factories employing up to 25 persons and not 40. Sankar Prasad Datta (CPI-M) also opposed the bill by terming as "pro-corporate". K Suresh (Cong) too opposed the bill, saying it was pro-business and anti-workers.
The Bill, as amended, proposes to change some of the provisions of the original Act of 1988 to increase the number of laws under which small establishments are exempt from furnishing returns and maintaining registers from nine to 16. It amends the definition of “small” establishments to cover units employing between 10 to 40 workers as against the limit of 19 workers at present.
Earlier, the Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on November 26, 2014.