 "Govt calls 46th Indian Labour Conference on July 17")
"Government will convene 2-3 days long conference from July 17. The Prime Minister will inaugurate the conference," a source said.
This conference is significant in view of ongoing protests by trade unions against the certain proposed amendments that are part of NDA government's labour reforms for improving ease of doing business to give a push to the 'Make in India' initiative.
The unions have strongly opposed some of the amendments that include norms related to easing retrenchment, lay offs and closer of units provision and forming unions under the proposed New Industrial Relations Code.
As many as 11 trade unions, including BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, will observe nationwide strike on September 2 against various issues.
Apart from this, the unions had also protested against providing option to EPFO's subscribers to choose between the social security schemes run by the retirement fund body and the New Pension Scheme run by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA).
The ILC, known as the 'Labour Parliament', provides platform to employers' and employees' representatives to share their ideas, reservations and suggestions with the government to improve industrial relations in the country.
Though ILC is an annual feature, the conference was not convened last year. The conference has been chaired in the past by different Labour Ministers and inaugurated by Prime Ministers.
The ILC had first met under the chairmanship of Ramaswami Mudaliar in 1940. Dr B R Ambedkar chaired its four sessions during the pre-Independence period.
After Independence, some of senior most national leaders, like Babu Jagjivan Ram, V V Giri and Gulzarilal Nanda chaired several sessions of the Indian Labour Conference.
The ILC provides the government its suggestions after holding comprehensive discussions that cover wide range of labour issues.
During the 10-year long UPA regime, the government called six labour conferences. The NDA government had called five labour conferences during their term from 1998 to 2004.