Hon.
Chairman Sir, I simply want to deal with the amendments that are proposed in
this Bill. There are some important amendments. An amendment in the Industrial
Disputes Act seeks to amend the term ‘appropriate Government’ to simplify the existing
definition. Earlier, it was difficult to identify the appropriate Government,
especially in the case of the Contract Labour Act. As you know, millions of
temporary workers are working in the industrial establishments of our country.
This Act was a welfare Act, but there were problems because of the term
‘appropriate Government’. Now, the Government has tried to specify that these
are the ‘appropriate Government’. I must say that the Contract Labour Act deals
with the contractor, the principal employer, and then the workmen. When there
is a dispute, the employers say that they are not ready to settle the dispute140 of the workmen. In the case of the
Central Government establishment in our country, the Central Government will be
the160 appropriate Government.
I think, now the workers need not run from door to door for the redressal of
their grievances. Another problem is coming in the sector of port. There are
public sector ports and there are private sector ports. In the public sector,
the Government of India is the appropriate Government. But in the private
sector, there are many ports in our country where thousands of workers are
working. I think, that has to be specified so that those workers who are
working in the private ports must not face any difficulty.
There
is another proposal in the amendment. Earlier, in the matter of any industrial
dispute, a worker had to go for conciliation. After the conciliation process,
it280 was to be referred to
the respective appropriate Government and then the respective Government had to
refer it to the labour court or the tribunal. It has been the experience of the
labour movement in this country that in many320
of the cases, the Government of the day sits on the matter and there is
indiscriminate delay in referring these things to the labour court or
industrial court. Now, the amendment gives the right to the worker that after
expiry of three months he can directly go to the industrial tribunal and the
labour court. It is a welcome step. At the same time, the experience of the
labour movement of this country is that many of the labour courts and the
industrial tribunals are without a judge. The experience has been that the
workers have been waiting for ten, 420
fifteen or twenty years for redressal or final settlement of their grievances.
An employer can afford to wait, but a worker who is the sole bread earner of
the family cannot afford to wait. What will happen to his family and the
school-going children if he has to wait that long? I would request the hon.
Minister to consider480 the
next step and ensure that some time limit is fixed by which the grievance has
to be settled. Another problem is that the employer does not implement the
judgment of the court. The poor worker has to run again and approach the court
to get the judgment implemented. But the legal system is so expensive nowadays
that it will be beyond the reach of a worker. So, implementation of judgement
must be ensured. Since the employer has the money and560 power, he moves the High Court and then
the Supreme Court to avoid implementation of the judgment. I would request the
hon. Minister to make a provision under which the employer would first
implement the judgment and then approach the higher courts.
There
is another good proposal in the legislation and that is the grievance redressal
procedure. The hon. Minister has brought this with the good intention that
there will be grievance redressal machinery in the establishment comprising the640 representatives of the employees and the
employer. I think this is a good system but this is already there. About 90 per
cent of the industrial establishments have not formed the Grievance Redressal
Committees in their establishments. What is the corrective measure that the
Government is going to take? In this regard also I would request the hon.
Minister to look700 into this
problem so that the good intention of the law is implemented and the worker
gets the benefit of the good intention of the Government that is to improve the
working conditions of the worker. The hon. Minister of Labour is an experienced
person. I know that in the Labour Department he has to deal with the poorest of
the poor of our country who are working in the unorganised as well as the
organised sector. In the Department he is heading, I think many offices are
required to be established in our country so that millions of800 our toiling workers get justice as
rightly intended by the Government. I say with full confidence that it has
always been the intention of the Congress Government to give necessary
protection to the workers and work for the welfare of the840 working class in the country. At the
same time, the Government has to look into the whole system. The first two National
Labour Commissions had given very good reports. There was a tripartite committee
and they had discussed many things. I request the hon. Minister to constitute a
small departmental committee to go into the recommendations of the first and
the second National Labour Commissions and try to see how far a new legislation
can be brought to the House for the betterment of workers. Without a vibrant
working class, you cannot build the nation. Without taking care of their bare
minimum requirements, you cannot think of the progress of the country because
they are the real builders of960
our country.
Mr.
Chairman, Sir, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to
participate in the discussion which is980
very much concerned with the workforce of this great country. I am glad that
the UPA Government is taking all possible steps to safeguard the interests of
the workforce and the debate which is going on in this august House is towards
this desire and intention. By making this Amendment to the Industrial Disputes
Act, the Government is trying to bring more workforce under the purview of this
Act, so that everyone gets justice. I also welcome the step initiated by the
Government through this amendment forcing industrial establishments with more
than twenty workmen to set up a mechanism to address individual grievances. It
is true that if such mechanism exists, then everyone will prefer to settle his
dispute within this ambit only, rather than going through the labour court or
the tribunal. So, it is a welcome step. 1120
However, I have a suggestion
to make here. With increasing use of machines, the strength of manpower has
come down in almost all establishments. Moreover, there is a tendency among the
entrepreneurs to get many companies incorporated under one roof and keep the
number of employees at lower side in a particular company’s name to escape from
many laws and rules relating to workmen or manpower. Therefore, it would be
prudent to keep the requirement of workmen at ten instead of twenty as
suggested in the Bill.
The
Government had appointed the Second National Labour Commission to suggest
reforms of labour laws to provide a minimum level of protection to workers in
the unorganised sector and the present Bill addresses many of its
recommendations. However, we are required to do much more to ensure that our
workforce leads a peaceful life. 1260
For example, the conciliation proceedings between the management and labour
which are mediated by Government officers are to1280 be completed within two weeks. The actual position
is that in 25 per cent cases, the proceedings had been pending for more than
two years and in the case of adjudication, a good percentage of cases taken up
by the labour courts and tribunals in many places were still pending although
these cases were taken up many years ago. So, there is a need to introduce a
mechanism to sort out these problems including implementation of awards. The Second
National Labour Commission had recommended for the creation of a single
comprehensive law covering labour relations and the standardization of terms
and definition across different laws and also to set up labour relations
commissions at national and state level to function as appellate1400 tribunals for labour courts. So, I urge
upon the hon. Minister to look into it. When we debate on an issue concerning
labour, we cannot neglect this issue as it is very much related with
employment. Today, 1440 in
almost all the provident fund offices spread across the country, cases of
withdrawal of provident fund have piled up and they are taking a lot of time for
settlement. This results into stress amongst the workforce. Similarly, the
provident fund offices are also not showing any sympathy towards legal heirs of
the account holders for grant of pension and the disbursement of pension is
taking a lot of time, putting the families of account holders into great
economic difficulties leading to starvation. Therefore, I would request the
Government to direct the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization to settle the
dues without causing any inordinate delay as well as to grant pension
immediately upon receipt of application in this regard. Sir, I feel it is very
relevant to mention here about the ESI hospitals working in the country. When
we talk about workmen, we cannot conclude without mentioning about their health
needs as health is wealth and the labour force is1600 the wealth of this nation.
