The group of ministers on labour reforms has agreed to allow employment of contract labour in twelve non-core areas including IT enabled services, security, housekeeping and laundry.
In case of export oriented units (EoUs), contract labour will be allowed even for core activities. EoUs will be defined as those exporting at least 75 per cent of their output.
The labour ministry will draw up a draft bill on the basis of the discussions held today, said Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma after the meeting. The bill will then go to the cabinet, subject to approval of the members of the GoM. The draft is expected to be ready by next week.
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Activities where usage of contract labour was approved include gardening, courier, transport, cleaning and canteen services. Maintenance, service and repair of equipment, machines and plants; construction and maintenance of buildings, roads and bridges; loading and unloading of raw material and finished goods; running of hospitals, education and training institutions, guest houses and clubs; sweeping, cleaning, dusting and collection and disposal of waste will also be covered.
The main issue of discussion at today's meeting was the definition of EoUs and how to cover SEZ developers in the bill to amend the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.
A consensus has been reached on the non-contentious issues including provision on overtime allowance, weekly off and changing the definition of workmen to cover workers drawing less than Rs 6,500 instead of Rs 500.
The group including Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, KC Pant, Labour minister, Sahib Singh Verma, Commerce and Industry Minister, Arun Jaitley and Small Industries Minister, CP Thakur however refrained from discussing contentious issues like retrenchment compensation.
The commerce ministry argued that the bill needs to focus on keeping Indian manufacturing viable.
The ministry is reported to have pointed out that while services are doing well in India, the manufacturing industry is shifting to China on account of lower costs there.
The labour ministry, on the other hand was in favour of giving all possible benefits to contract labourers. The agreement at today's meeting was to keep the retrenchment compensation at