Haryana to align labour policy with FDI

The goverment of Haryana announced its labour policy in Chandigarh.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Haryana was the first state in the country to formulate and release its own labour policy that would be in tune with the Centre's labour policy.

While addressing the media in Haryana Niwas, Hooda said this was the culmination of the New Industrial Policy announced by the State Government in June 2005. He indicated that it was essential for the state to have its own labour policy in order to meet the target of investment of Rs 200,000 crore and, employment for 10 lakh people, as stated in the industrial policy.

He added that in order to attract more foreign investment, the state needed to have a congenial and a harmonious labour-enterprenuer relation. The policy aims at creating such an environment to check labour unrest in the state, and to increase the flow of domestic and foreign investment in the state's economy.

Finance Minister of Haryana Birender Singh apprised that the policy has been formulated in consultation with various industry and labour associations. "There is always room for improvement, and we will update it as and when required," he added.

The chief minister released the "Haryana Overseas Placement Assistance Society" brochure, to help the youth of the state in matters of overseas placements. He said the initiative was aimed at eliminating unscrupulous travel agents from the state.

The society will be headed by the financial commissioner and principal secretary to the government of Haryana, labour and employment departments.

The society will disseminate information to interested persons regarding on employment prospects, academic courses, passport, visa and immigration rules and regulations and would also facilitate skill improvement.

According to Hooda, the Haryana government has conducted a comparitive study of foreign remittances of Punjab and Haryana and discovered that Punjab was drawing about Rs 1500 crore of foreign remittances per annum, whereas the share of Haryana was a minisucle Rs 50 crore per annum. So the government decided to adopt a systematic approach to encourage its citizens for jobs in overseas countries.

The Chief Minister reiterated the significance of harmonious relations between the labour and enterprenuers for the holistic development of the state. He said that Haryana has one of the highest minimum wage of unskilled workers (Rs 2359.54 per month) in the country. He stressed that violation of minimum wage act would not be countenenced at any cost.

The state government has created an office of Additional Commissioner at Gurgaon for the speeddy redressal of labour disputes in the towns of Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh, Faridabad and Sonepat. The government has also decided to add two more Labour Courts at Gurgaon and Faridabad (the state already has 7 labour courts) to settle the pending cases.