NEW DELHI: After the central government indefinitely postponed the 47th Indian Labour Conference, CPI(M)- affiliated trade union CITU's President K Hemalata has said that the event has become a "talk show" without any serious commitment of successive governments to it.
Hemalata said the Congress-led governments "did not try to implement the conference's recommendations during its tenure, but the BJP government went a step ahead and has stopped organising the yearly two-day event for the past two years, excluding the postponed event".
The 47th Indian Labour Conference was scheduled to be held on 26th and 27th of this month with main focus on four agendas - social security for all, Labour Law amendment, reforms and codification, employment generation with special focus on women and transition to formal employment.
"The last meeting happened in 2015. Issues of minimum wages of Rs 18,000, equalising wages for both contract workers doing the same work as the permanent workers are all lying unattended," the president of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) told PTI, adding that the conference became a "talking show without governments' serious commitment".
The Indian Labour Conference (ILC) is an apex level tripartite consultative committee in the Ministry of Labour and Employment to advise the government on issues concerning working class of the country.
Central trade union organisations, organisations of employers, central, all state and UT governments which are members take part in the event.
"We have also been demanding that the government recognise around one crore 'social workers' in different schemes of central government as 'workers' and increase their remuneration," she said.
Accusing the Centre of not paying attention to issues of trade unions, she said 'ease of doing business' was extensively taken up at the expense of working class.
"The government claims it had created around 70 lakh employment, considering the number of employees enrolled in the Provident Fund.
That is not a valid claim as the figures also include those who were already working and have newly enrolled into PF," she said.
"Even if there is creation of jobs, these are non-contract or casual jobs and not permanent ones," she added.