Amid boycott by opposition parties including Congress and Left over suspension of eight MPs, Parliament on Wednesday approved three key labour reform bills that will remove impediments for winding up of companies and allow firing of staff without government permission in firms with up to 300 workers.
In absence of opposition MPs, Rajya Sabha passed by voice vote the three remaining labour codes on industrial relations, social security and occupational safety.
The three codes were passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday and these will now be sent to the President for his assent.
Parliament also passed a Bill for inclusion of Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the list of official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the existing Urdu and English.
The Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 was passed by Rajya Sabha through voice vote. Lok Sabha had cleared the legislation on Tuesday.
Replying to a debate on the Bill, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said it was a long-standing demand of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the language they speak should be included in the list of official languages.
The minister pointed out that around 74 per cent people in the Union Territory spoke Kashmiri and Dogri languages.
He said that according to 2011 census, only 0.16 per cent population in Jammu and Kashmir spoke Urdu, while 2.3 per cent spoke Hindi.
Reddy said the government would also take steps to encourage other local languages like Punjabi, Gurjari and Pahari in the region.
Participating in the debate on the Bill, Naresh Gujral (SAD) termed it “unfortunate” that Punjabi was not included in the Bill and urged the government to reconsider it.
The J&K Constitution included Punjabi and the first Chief Minister of J&K was a Punjabi, he said and added: “It hurts the feeling of those who are settled there. I would urge the government to reconsider because language is the basis of cultural heritage of the community.” He said 13 lakh Punjabis live in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mir Mohammad Fayaz (PDP) demanded inclusion of Gurjari, Punjabi and Pahari in the Bill, saying that the motto of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” was lacking in the state.
“Include Punjabi, Gurjari and Pahari so that we win the trust of everyone in J&K,” he said.
Ramdas Athawale (RPI) expressed “support to Dogri and Kashmiri languages” and in his poetic style said that a day will come when PoK will come to India.
Mamata Mohanta (BJD) said the bill will facilitate integration of the UT into mainstream. Shamsher Singh Manhas (BJP) spoke in Dogri. Surendra Singh Nagar (BJP) supported the Bill.
What do three bills mean for workers and employers:
1- Replying to the debate on the three labour reforms bills, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said,”The purpose of labour reforms is to provide a transparent system to suit the changed business environment.”
2- The minister also told the House that as many as 16 states have already increased the threshold for closure, lay off and retrenchment in firms with up to 300 workers without government permission.
3- He maintained that is not good for employment generation to keep the threshold low at 100 because it discourages employers to recruit more workers than this and they deliberately keep their workers’ strength below it. The minister was of the view that the increase in threshold would result in job creation and encourage employers to hire.
4- He said these bills would safeguard the interest of workers and provide universal social security to workers by expanding the ambit of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and Employees’ State Corporation of India.
5- He also said that there would a social security fund to cover around 40 crore unorganised sector workers.
6- Over 29 labour laws have been merged into four codes and one (Code on Wages Bill, 2019) of them has already been passed, according to the minister.
7- The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, will consolidate and amend the laws regulating the occupational safety, health and working conditions of persons employed in an establishment and related matters.
8- The Industrial Relations Code, 2020, seeks to consolidate and amend laws relating to trade unions, conditions of employment in industrial establishments or undertaking, investigation and settlement of industrial disputes.
9- The Code on Social Security, 2020, will amend and consolidate laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised sector or the unorganised sector.
10- The Code on Wages 2019 was passed by Parliament last year. The passage of the remaining three codes by Parliament completes government efforts to reform labour laws in the country.
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