Ravi S Singh
New Delhi, October 31
Irked by alleged apathy of the Union government to engage with worker organisations to discuss and resolve pending issues, 10 central labour unions have jointly asked the Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav to convene the long due Indian Labour Conference (ILC) at the earliest.
The ILC is the highest tripartite forum involving representatives of the Union government, the employers and the workers.
The ILC was last held in July, 2015, though it has to be mandatory held at least once in a year.
“We urge you to ensure that it is convened at the earliest. And for deciding the agenda of ILC, the meeting of the Standing Labour Committee, comprising representatives of all Central Trade Unions and Employers’ Organisation also needs to be convened immediately,” the unions stated in a joint letter to Yadav.
The 10 unions—INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC—have also demanded the scrapping of the four Labour Codes, which have been enacted into laws by Parliament.
A labour leader said that the Codes, which were enacted by repealing 29 existing labour laws, have drastically curtailed whatever rights and protective provisions were there. He added that the suspension of labour laws by certain state governments has not shown any economic gains either.
Withdrawal of Essential Defence Services Act, 2021, and implementation of the Universal Pension Scheme for the unorganised sector workers are some of the other demands of the unions.