Ministry of Labour & Employment to meet trade unions

NEW DELHI: The Bandaru Dattatreya-led Ministry of Labour & Employment will meet a dozen trade unions on Wednesday in an attempt to bring them on board over three key amendments that it hopes will be passed in the upcoming winter session of Parliament, paving the way for more changes in archaic labour laws.

While officials call it a courtesy meeting, this may be yet another effort by the ministry to pacify the trade unions, which plan to start a nationwide protest on December 5 against many labour reforms initiated by the Narendra Modi government, including the three amendments. The minister, who will chair the meeting, will explain to the unions that his government is not anti-labour and that the proposed changes will benefit both employees and employers, something his predecessor in the previous United Progressive Alliance government attempted without much success, a senior official told ET.The amendment to the Apprenticeship Act of 1961 was passed in the Lok Sabha during the last session and will be taken up in Rajya Sabha in the winter session.

Trade unions oppose a provision under the Factories Act that allows females to work on night shifts. They also allege that a move to double overtime hours will give more liberty to employers. Amendments to the Factories Act of 1948 introduced in the Lok Sabha and changes to the Labour Laws (Exemption From Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Act of 1988 in the Rajya Sabha during the last session have yet to be passed in their respective houses. The unions say the proposal to increase the threshold for compliance with the Labour Laws Act from 19 employees to 40 should have been made gradually and not at one go. On the Apprentice Act, they feel the new government has not made provisions to monitor breaches by employers.