Unorganised Workers bill coming in Budget session- Fernandes
New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) The UPA government will bring in legislation to provide social security to over 370 million workers in the unorganised sector in the second phase of the Budget session of Parliament beginning tomorrow.
''We will introduce the Unorganised workers Bill, 2006 in this very session,'' Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes told mediapersons.
At the first formal press meet in the national capital, Mr Fernandes, while reiterating the goverment's commitment to defend the interests of the unofficial labour force, said the issue had been pending for the past 25 to 30 years.
Mr Fernandes denied the allegations of the trade unions that the government was not sincere to improve the plight of workers, while stressing that ''even today we have a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GOM) headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram to finalise the modalities of the proposed Bill.'' The Miinister who fielded several questions pertaining to labour laws, child labour, FDI in Pension Fund among others, also spelt out the agenda of the two day Indian Labour Conference beginning on April 27 and 28. He, however remained non-commital on the rate of interest on EPF for 2006-07 and 2007-08 saying this came in the perview of the Board of Trustees of the EPF Board.
''We
hope
that
a
meeting
of
the
Board
will
take
place
before
May
15
to
take
a
final
decision
on
the
matter.''
Replying
to
a
specific
query
on
how
the
proposed
move
to
streamline
the
functioning
of
his
ministry
which
is
percieved
as
the
''pro-industry
and
pro-corporate
department''
and
protecting
the
interests
of
the
workers,
the
minister
cited
several
instances
including
that
of
the
Jute
industry
through
tripartite
talks.
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