Helping hand for the unorganised sector
National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganised Sector drafts proposals for workers in the sector.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Aiming to ensure improved working conditions for the unorganised sector, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector has drafted Bills that seek to remove wage disparities and set up a national fund to meet the workers' credit needs.
The Commission has proposed the 'Unorganised Non-agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill 2007' and the 'Unorganised Agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill 2007'.
The bills aim to cover all unorganised workers, ensuring protection of their minimum conditions of work like overtime rates, maximum hours of work, rights of women workers and an unbiased dispute resolution mechanism, NCEUS Chairman Arjun Sengupta told reporters today.
"We have formulated the bills and the final draft will be submitted to the government in the next 6-8 weeks, after a last round of consultations. It will then be up to the government to use our recommendations," Sengupta said.
With a view to remove disparities in the wage structure of labourers in the unorganised sector, NCEUS has also mooted the idea of a national minimum wage, to be fixed after taking into account the minimum basic needs of the workers and the cost of living in different regions.
"The minimum wages currently vary from region to region and sector to sector. This disparity needs to be removed and a common wage structure for the unorganised workers should be in place," he added.
The Commission has proposed the 'Unorganised Non-agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill 2007' and the 'Unorganised Agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill 2007'.
The bills aim to cover all unorganised workers, ensuring protection of their minimum conditions of work like overtime rates, maximum hours of work, rights of women workers and an unbiased dispute resolution mechanism, NCEUS Chairman Arjun Sengupta told reporters today.
"We have formulated the bills and the final draft will be submitted to the government in the next 6-8 weeks, after a last round of consultations. It will then be up to the government to use our recommendations," Sengupta said.
With a view to remove disparities in the wage structure of labourers in the unorganised sector, NCEUS has also mooted the idea of a national minimum wage, to be fixed after taking into account the minimum basic needs of the workers and the cost of living in different regions.
"The minimum wages currently vary from region to region and sector to sector. This disparity needs to be removed and a common wage structure for the unorganised workers should be in place," he added.
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The Bills also propose setting up of a national fund for workers in the sector to cover their need for credit, technology and marketing. The corpus would be created through grants from the Centre, contribution from national financial institutions and international donor agencies.
"We hope that in the next five years, the corpus will have about Rs 10000 crore. The final recommendation for setting up the fund would be submitted to the government in another 4-6 weeks," Sengupta said.
The constitution of a national fund also finds mention in the government's National Common Minimum Programme and hopefully the fund would be set up relatively quickly, he said.
The Commission has also formulated establishment of growth poles in different parts of the country to integrate clusters in the manufacturing and services sector. Six pilot growth pole projects have already been identified in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Assam.
"The micro and tiny units operating in these poles should receive the same fiscal incentives as those operating in the Special Economic Zones, besides getting similar export benefits as extended to units in the SEZs," he added.
About 15 per cent of the country's workforce is employed in the organised sector, while the remaining 85 per cent is in the unorganised sector. However, seven per cent of those employed in the organised sector are informal workers without any job or legal protection, thus taking the figure of unorganised workers in the country to 92 per cent.
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