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New Delhi : Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment Santosh Gangwar while responding to the debate in the Lok Sabha on September 22, 2020, stated that the three Bills introduced in the House for historic labour reforms in the country will prove to be a Game Changer in the labour welfare reforms covering more than 50 crore organised and unorganised workers in the country.
The 3 bills which were passed in the Lok Sabha on September 22, 2020, are : (i) Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (ii) Code on Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code, 2020 and iii) Social Security Code, 2020. These bills are part of Government’s earnest desire to bring much needed labour welfare reforms in the country which has not been done for the last 73 years. In the last 6 years, many multi-stakeholders consultations were held with all stakeholders i.e. Trade unions, Employers, State Governments, and experts of labour sector. This also includes holding 9 tripartite consultations, four Sub Committee meetings, and 10 Regional Conferences, 10 inter-ministerial consultations, and views of citizens, according to a PIB frelease.
Gangwar said that under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this Government has taken number of steps to fulfil the dreams of Baba Saheb Ambedkar from 2014 onwards and gave equal importance to ‘Shramev Jayate’ and ‘Satyamev Jayate’.
Replying to the issues raised by the Members of Lok Sabha, Gangwar said that the Bills take into account the holistic development of the country by keeping the labour interest uppermost in the mind.
Provision for Gratuity has been made for Fixed Term Employee and there would not be any condition for minimum service period for this. For the first time, a Fixed Term Employee working for a determined period on contract has been given the right of social security like a Regular Employee. Working journalists definition to include Digital and Electronic Media
With the aim of making a national database for unorganised sector workers, registration of all these workers would be done on an online portal and this registration would be done on the basis of Self Certification through a simple procedure. It would facilitate the extension of benefits of various social security schemes to beneficiaries in the unorganised sector.