BMS president Shri Saji Narayan CK vehemently opposed the proposal of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to exempt labour laws in small and micro enterprises, which is in the agenda of the forthcoming Indian Labour Conference to be held on May 17 and 18 in New Delhi. The two-day Labour Parliament will be inaugurated by Prime Minister and will be attended by many Central Ministers, central trade unions representatives, employer organisations and ministers as well as officials of the State governments. The ILC is expected to discuss four subjects—new labour legislation for micro, small and medium enterprises; service conditions, wages and social security for scheme workers like Anganwadi, ASHA, mid-day meal and similar workers; social security with special reference to assured pension for all workers; and improving employment and employability i.e. skill development. The MSME Ministry has proposed a separate law exempting many existing laws for micro and small enterprises which employs less than 50 workers, in order to bring them in line with globalisation and also to provide flexibility. The Ministry also proposed to apply only ESI, PF, MW Act, Payment of Wages Act; and remove all other labour laws from the sector. It also proposed to relax provisions of prohibition and regulation of contract labour by amending Contract Labour Act, 1970. Government believes that the Government’s Labour inspectorate has to be abolished and be replaced by a system of ‘self-compliance’. Except few honest entrepreneurs most of them violate law and exploit workers. But the Government has no answer, (FOC)
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