The government on Monday parried questions on plans to hold the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), which has not met for over a decade.
The ILS is a tripartite forum where the labour ministry, worker unions and employers discuss labour-related issues.
It usually meets once a year, barring a few occasions when it met once in two years. It was last held in July 2015 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended it.
CPI-ML (Liberation) Lok Sabha member Raja Ram Singh on Monday wanted to know if the government was planning to convene the ILC and whether the recently passed labour codes were discussed at the ILC.
In a written reply, minister of state for labour Sushri Shobha Karandlaje did not mention any plan to hold the ILC. However, she claimed that the government had consulted the worker unions on the labour codes nine times. The minister said the stakeholders had participated in tripartite meetings and given inputs on various aspects of the labour codes.
Ten central trade unions have demanded the scrapping of the labour codes, claiming that they are anti-worker. The trade unions held a nationwide strike against these laws on July 9.
“The 46th Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) was held in New Delhi from July 20-21, 2015. The government has been holding tripartite consultations involving representatives of the government, employers and workers to deliberate on important labour policies/issues from time to time,” she said.
Ashok Singh, general secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, said the government had never held any structured meeting with a specific agenda on the new labour laws with the trade unions.
“The government has held a few courtesy meetings with trade unions. In these meetings, the government does not even listen to any points raised by the workers’ organisations,” Singh said.
Singh said the ILC discusses specific labour issues and the government takes action based on the decisions taken.
The four labour codes, which were passed by Parliament in 2019, are yet to be implemented as rules have not been framed.
The Industrial Relations Code allows firms engaging up to 300 people to fire workers without the need for state government approval. At present, small firms with 100 or fewer workers have the provision. The new Wage Code provides a “floor-level wage” that is below the legally enforceable minimum wage in most states. The Occupational Safety Code exempts labour contractors engaging up to 50 workers from its ambit. The Social Security Code is unclear about the respective financial obligations of the Centre, states and private employers.