HUBBALLI: Stating that the Centre is committed to providing various facilities to workers, Union Minister of State for Labour Shobha Karandlaje on Friday said efforts have been made to amend 29 labour laws and implement them under four labour codes. Among these, the Social Security Code is the most important and will be implemented to provide social security, pension and ESI facilities to all workers, she said.
She said the Centre pays Rs 10,000-13,000 crore annually to EPFO. A 1% cess is collected from the states, amounting to around Rs 15,000 crore, and it is being utilised effectively.
The workers are now provided only free medical check-up camps and kits, and there have been several irregularities in distributing benefits to them. These would be investigated, Karandlaje said and added that a 100-bed ESIC hospital will be inaugurated in Doddaballapur on May 3. Later, speaking at a Labour Day celebration, she said that even after 78 years of Independence, many laws date back to the British era.
India needs laws rooted in its own culture and welfare. Labour codes are being implemented to ensure social security, equal pay for equal work, as well as ESI and pension benefits for all.
Karandlaje said 90% of workers are currently outside ESI and EPF coverage, and the unorganised sector employs a major portion of the workforce. “Organised workers receive benefits, but unorganised workers often do not, and these benefits must be extended to them,” she said.