Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday pitched for managements and the staff to work together and said while sluggish industry can't fetch investment, only an efficient eonomy and growth will protect labour's interest. He also pushed for dignity of labour.
"A high growth rate will always protect workmen and labour interest," the finance minister told the 46th session of Indian Labour Conference here, adding: "If fountains of investment stop then economy activity stops, jobs are threatened."
Speaking at the session, a day after labour leaders met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and him to discuss various issues, Jaitley said the government was working hard towards ensuring a decent social security system for the workers.
He said it wasn't sufficient to promote investments and that actual money must flow in for grwoth to take place. "A sluggish economy cannot create jobs. An overloading taxation system will not be able to create jobs," he said.
At the meeting on Sunday over tea, differences persisted between central trade unions and the government over the contentious issues of contract labour and minimum wages, besides the effort to recast the various labour laws.
"The government is trying to change the labour laws without speaking to trade unions. We have made it very clear that this is not acceptable to us," Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress and a former Lok Sabha member, said after the meeting.
"We have said that we totally opposed the government's move on changing labour laws of the country. This will hurt the interest of the workers," he said.
