HYDERABAD: The NDA government has decided to fix minimum national monthly wages at around `15,000 for all jobs in both the formal and informal sectors. It is also planning to modernise employment exchanges through a National Career Service with an estimated cost of `400 crore.
By doing so, the Union government wants to overhaul the defunct employment exchanges across the country.
Disclosing this to newsmen here on Tuesday, Union minister of state for labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya said once a person is registered with any employment exchange, he would get SMS alerts on jobs available and the job-seekers do not have to make repeated visits to exchanges. “This would save them a lot of time and money,” he added.
The project will connect a network of career centres and develop a national portal to facilitate registration of job-seekers so that suitable services could be provided by employers.The proposed higher wages are in sync with the relaxed regulatory regime for employers that the government intends to bring, he informed. “The amendment to the Minimum Wages Act will include a provision that would make the national rates binding on the States, rather than being merely advisory, as is the case now,” he said. He said the initiative would go down well with workers, especially in the informal sector, reduce labour unrest and make it easier for industry to open in new areas without having to negotiate through a forest of wage rates.
The Union minister said efforts are being made to convert the ESI dispensary at Goshamahal in Hyderabad into a 100-bed hospital. So far, in response to the notification to fill 8,000 posts in ESI, over 11 lakh application have been received, he added.
Labour Meet in Delhi on July 20
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 46th session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) on July 20 - a day ahead of the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament.
Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya said the conference is being organised to involve trade unions in key labour law reforms. The two-day conference here will be attended by State labour ministers, representatives of the central trade unions, employers and Union government officials, he said.The conference would review the implementation of the recommendations of the previous labour conferences, discuss the social security of workers and measures to increase employment and employability, Dattatreya added.