Bill on closure of industrial units likely

MUMBAI: The Central government has accepted industry’s demand to facilitate retrenchment, lay-off of workers and closure of industrial units. A bill providing for labour law reforms will be introduced in the budget session of Parliament.
It is proposed to reduce 50 labour laws to 10, said Union labour minister Sahib Singh Verma in Mumbai recently while interacting with members of the Employers’ Federation of India and Indian Merchants’ Chamber.He also saw a power point presentation made by Ms Kavita Khanna, entrepreneur and wife of Union minister of state for tourism Vinod Khanna. Ms Khanna urged immediate labour law reforms.
She has been campaigning vigorously against the present labour legislation calling it draconian and has made presentations to the Prime Minister, other ministers and MPs. Mr Verma said an employer in Chennai complained to him about the poor work culture in India. The minister told him that employers too needed a better work culture. “Employers had a duty towards employees. They should talk with workers about their personal and family problems,’’ he said. The minister found that an industrialist employing 100 workers did not know all of them though the number was not large. He agreed to do away with chapter 5 B of the Industrial Disputes Act so that employers do not need government permission to lay-off, retrench workers and close down industrial units. Mr Verma was responding to a forceful plea for the amendment made by Chander Uday Singh, cochairperson, human resource development, of IMC.
However, the minister said that politicians had to face people every five years. The biggest problem, he said, was unemployment. People were losing faith in employment exchanges and there was a decline in registration for jobs but this did not mean there was an improvement in the employment situation. The minister denied that he had been brought into the ministry to push anti-labour legislation. “I have worked in my farm and I am not anti-labour,’’ he said.
Ram Tarneja, chairperson of employers federation of India, emphasised the need for employment generation and recalled how Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister had evinced interest in his projection in the 1980s about employment potential of the information technology sector.