Union Minister for Labour & Employment Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Labour & Employment K. Suresh on Wednesday urged 11 major Central Trade Unions, including Congress-backed INTUC, to call off their country-wide general strike on February 20-21.

The TUs said they had been seeking an appointment with the Prime Minister for quite some months now, at which the Minister assured them that he would bring the developments to the notice of the Prime Minister.

The TU representatives reiterated their stance that a final settlement of all the pending issues should be done without further loss of time.

At the meeting, union representatives reiterated their demand for the Government to take concrete measures to contain price rise, to ensure employment generation, strict enforcement of labour laws, universal social security for unorganised and organised workers and stoppage of disinvestment in Central and State public sector undertakings.

They also raised demands related to payment of minimum wages of Rs 10,000, abolition of contract labour among others.

Kharge clarified that both the Central and State Governments had taken effective measures for inspection of workplaces and prosecution was launched wherever irregularities were detected. He said enacting labour legislation involved a tripartite process and employers, employees and State Governments had to be consulted, which made it a time-consuming process. “The Govt is taking all necessary steps to enact various laws and amendments in consultation with the various stakeholders,” he assured TUs.

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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