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Respect for labour laws has to go along with aiming at high industrial growth, the Union Labour Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge said, here on Thursday.
Addressing a State Labour Ministers at a conference, Kharge said failure in enforcing labour laws was responsible for the recent flaring up of incidents such as Maruti Suzuki in Haryana, Regency Ceramics, Yanam in Andhra Pradesh and Neyveli Lignite in Tamil Nadu.
He said investors will come only if they are ensured of a healthy industrial climate. “Employers should not turn a blind eye towards labour statutes. At the same time, workers should refrain from taking law into their hands,” he said. He called for the need to ensure a “healthy social dialogue so that all the creative energy is channelised for the progress of our nation.”
Minimum wage floor
Meanwhile, most States have broadly agreed to a National Floor level for minimum wages and making it statutory. The effort is to remove inter-State disparity, said Kharge. The minimum wage has been fixed at Rs 115 with effect from April 1, 2011. Kharge said many States were yet to adopt the concept of variable dearness allowance, which was introduced to neutralise the impact of inflation on workers.
“Only 24 States/Union Territories have adopted variable dearness allowance…we are pursuing the matter with the remaining States,” he said.
Migrant Labour
The Labour Ministry is also considering a scheme to offer smart cards to migrant labour, so that they are registered and can avail themselves of benefits, such as health. “One proposal is to merge the Unique Identity (Aadhaar) cards with the Rashtriya Surakhsa Bima Yojana cards.” Kharge said on the sidelines of the conference, and added that this would be done only after discussing it with States.
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