New Wage Code Likely To Address Labour Issues Of Scam Hit Companies, Hints Labour Secretary At PHD Chamber

Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Ms. M Sathiyavathy on Wednesday hinted indicating that the government would look into the labour related issues erupting and surfacing on scam hit companies in a bid to take care of their wages and social security issue in new Wage Code.

Speaking at a Seminar on “Udyog Parivar-Key for Industrial Growth” under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, the Secretary wondered admitting that the owners of scam hit companies though hard to find yet the government would to see to it that in the new Wage Code some provisioning relating to this issue is incorporated.

She explained that the focus of the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment is to make laws relating to issues such as lay off, retrenchment, lockouts, downsizing and so on and so forth but since the issue of scam hit companies workers has arisen, the government would try its best to address it also in some form or other in the new Wage Code.

Ms. Sathiyavathy also disclosed saying that the man days lost on account of labour and union strikes in the corporate world in 2017 would come down below seven lakhs as compared to eight lakhs in 2016 and that of over 14 lakhs in preceding years since number of strikes and lockouts in the corporate world are lessening gradually.

The Labour Secretary, however, expressed her concern stating that labour laws violation takes place in the small and medium sized companies at larger proportion as against large corporate.

According to her in India there are 58.5 million establishments, 98.6 per cent of them have less than 10 employees and therefore, appealed to the industry to come forward on the compliance factor of labour laws so that disputes do not arise in industrial relations between employees and employers.

She also pointed out that the objective of new Wage Code would be entirely to rationalize the old and prototype different labour laws so that not only the country’s GDP accelerate but also it becomes a country for investment attraction and finally its people enjoy the happiness index the most on lines of Bhutan.

Among other who were also spoke on the occasion comprised President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Mr. Manish Kumar Gupta; President, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Mr. C K Saji Narayanan; Former Presidents, PHD Chamber, Mr. Ravi Wig, Mr. Alok B Shriram; Chairman, Law & Justice Committee, PHD Chamber, Dr. Lalit Bhasin; Co-Chairman, Industrial Relations & HR Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Bharat Mehta; including its Head, Industrial Relations Committee, Mr. R K Joshi.