The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Friday sought the cooperation of industry, trade unions and state governments to help encourage enterprise and business sentiment in the country.
Inaugurating the 45th session of the Indian Labour Conference here, Dr. Singh said: "The Government of India, industry, trade unions and state governments need to work in partnership to strengthen our society, our economy and our country."
"We are all aware that our economy is going through difficult circumstances and our growth is not what we would like it to be. Even as the Government works for reversing this situation and I am confident, we can do so and we will do it, we need the cooperation of both captions of industry and our trade unions. In the recent months we have taken a number of steps to boost investment, encourage enterprise and improve business sentiment," he said.
"We have paid special attention to the need for removing bottlenecks that hamper new industrial activity. I would urge you all captions of industry and trade union leaders to help us in making a success of these efforts. I wish your deliberations all success," he added.
He said the UPA Government is committed to stricter implementation of labour laws, welfare and universal social security cover for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors.
He said, the government is considering the creation of National Security Fund and also to fix National floor level minimum wage and minimum pension of one thousand rupees under the employees pension scheme.
"I believe that many of the demands of the trade unions reflect the concern that our growth and progress should be inclusive and should particularly benefit the under-privileged sections of our society. This is a concern that has been very dear to our Government. We believe that providing our people with productive employment opportunities is the best way of achieving this objective," he added .
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Asserting that the National Skill Development Corporation has been established for promoting private sector efforts in the area of skill development, Dr. Singh further said that in addition, the Government has recently taken the decision to set up the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) to anchor and operationalize the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) which should play a vital role in transforming the quality of training in our country.
"The NSDA will also endeavour to bridge the social, regional, gender and economic divides in processes of skill development. I have no doubt that with active participation of the industry, the Trade Unions and the Government, we will be able to achieve more effective outcomes in improving the employability of our youth and thus pave the way for generating decent employment opportunities for them commensurate with their rising aspirations. This is the task to which I commit our country," he added.
Lauding the UPA Government, Dr. Singh said: "Ever since the UPA Government came to power in 2004, we have endeavoured to work for the welfare of workers.
"When I look back at what I had said when I addressed the 40th Session of this Conference in 2005, I feel a sense of satisfaction that we have delivered substantially on the promises we had made at that time. I had at that time spoken about the need for a new deal to the working people, the need for ensuring the welfare and well being of all workers, particularly those in the unorganized sector, and the legislation that was under consideration in this regard. I am happy that we have achieved good results in these areas, though I would be the first one to recognize that there is much that still needs to be done," he said.
"We launched the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in 2008 to provide for smart card based hospitalization facilities for workers in the unorganized sector. Our Government enacted the Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 for the benefit of the workers in the informal sector," he added.