New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday accused the government of not doing proper tripartite consultations before pushing the four labour codes in Parliament. Participating in a debate on working of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Rajya Sabha, Singh said, "The minister (Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav) said there were tripartite consultations. Where is that consultation when there was no meeting of the Indian Labour Conference called?"
"You have not agreed to the suggestions given during the consultations. Had you given heed to their suggestions, they would not have gone on strike for two days (on March 28 & 29)?" When Singh was speaking, Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav intervened and asked him to correct his view stressing that the tripartite consultations were done on labour codes. Singh mentioned about the two days strike of the trade unions on March 28 and 29, where Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) had not participated.
He said, "The issues they (trade unions in strike) raised are labour codes, which were brought without tripartite consultations. Last Indian Labour Conference was held in 2015. That used to provide a platform to employees, employers and government representatives to express their views." He pointed out that trade unions are demanding scrapping of labour codes, stop privatisation and disinvestment and reduce price rise or inflation.
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"Was there any demand on these, which cannot be discussed?" he stated. He also said that Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh had opposed the four labour codes saying that they were dejected with the fact that their suggestions were given no heed. They also accused the government for converting the fixed term employment into a hire and fire system (of employment). He mentioned that there were arrears of Rs 4,460 crore on employers under ESI scheme run by ESIC 2020-21.
"You are indifferent to recover the arrears from employers. You have also reduced rate of interest of employees provident fund to all time low of 8.1 per cent," he stated. He alleged that the government is working in favour of corporates. He demanded to merge skill development ministry with the labour ministry. He also raised the issue of not completing the general verification of trade unions which is pending since 2014. He stated that (in the absence of general verification) Indian National Trade Union Congress is not being invited in the official tripartite meetings.
DMK member M Shanmugam said labour unions want three things only, job security, wages and social security. He said, "I don't know why this government is afraid of trade unions not to discuss any matter with them." He stated that instead of hiking the minimum pension of Rs 1,000 (provided by EPFO), they (are) reducing the rate of interest on employees provident fund.
BJP member Prakash Javadekar said that reskillng and upskilling is necessary during this time. We need to learn new things to remain relevant. People are going for upskilling after working for ten years. In politics also, we have to learn new skills otherwise people are after us. We need to understand this." He was of the view that economic growth creates jobs itself. Dola Sen (TMC), Sukhram Singh Yadav (SP), Munisamy Thambidurai (AIADMK), Elamaram Kareem (CPI-M)A and Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy (YSRCP) also spoke on the matter.
PTI
