GoM to take up labour bill changes

NEW DELHI: The reconstituted group of ministers (GoM) on labour is meeting here on Wednesday to discuss changes to the revised Contract Labour Bill.
The bill now named Contract Labour (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Bill 2003 would replace Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. The changes to Contract Labour Law were first proposed in Budget ’01-02 by the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha. The proposal included allowing outsourcing of activities without any restrictions, and without any differentiation between core and non-core activities.
The proposal included adequate protection to people engaged in outsourced activities in terms of their health, safety, welfare, social security. It would also provide for larger compensation based on last drawn wages as retrenchment compensation for every year of service.
A gratuity fund for contract workers was also proposed.
The reconstituted GoM is chaired by Planning Commission deputy chairman KC Pant and has its members labour minister Sahib Singh Verma, law, justice, commerce and industry minister Arun Jaitley, disinvestment, communications and information technology minister Arun Shourie and small scale industries minister CP Thakur.