House panel for single Bill on unorganised sector

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour , which is considering the Unorganised Workers Social Security Bill, 2007, today ruled out two separate Bills on agricultural and non-agricultural labour.

This is contrary to the suggestion by trade unions and the National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (NCEUS).

The standing committee, which met the Central Trade Unions (CTUs) today, has almost made up its mind on introducing only one Bill, almost in the same form as it was introduced in Parliament in the last session, but with certain strong recommendations on social security and service (working) conditions.

"All the views put forward by CTUs were considered. While the standing committee will meet for further discussions, it may not recommend two separate Bills for agriculture and non-agriculture unorganised workers," a source in the committee told Business Standard.

"The opinion is that we can have separate Bills later, but now the Bill can be advanced. The committee would take care of the concerns like working conditions, wage structure, powers of the advisory boards and implementation mechanism, and would suggest suitable recommendations, clause-wise," the source said.

This, then, would be a major blow to the demands of the Left-affiliated CTUs who are adamant that there should be two separate comprehensive Bills for both the sectors in one go.

The Bill was referred to the standing committee under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament and CPI national secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy in the wake of Left-affiliated unions threatening to oppose the Bill in its present form.

The long-awaited Bill proposes to take care of 395 million unorganised workers constituting 93 per cent of the country's workforce.

The unions are upset over their suggestions being ignored. "The Bill is even against the tripartite agreement reached at the Indian Labour Conference. We stand by our stance of opposition to it in the present form as it does not provide anything substantial for the unorganised sector in the country," a trade union said.

Among the demands made by the unions, and which have been rejected by the government, are reserving 3 per cent GDP for social security of the unorganised sector, a raise in minimum wages and legislating on working conditions and hours of work.

Only the Congress-affiliated INTUC is in favour of the present Bill.