Objections raised over draft labour policy

PUNE: The Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP) of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) has registered objections to the draft labour policy of the state government, saying that it has certain lacunae like ignoring of unrecognised and non-industrial sectors in the draft. The GIPE and the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) recently submitted their objections to the state labour ministry.The objections are an outcome of a public consultation held at the GIPE in the presence of various experts and were submitted to the government by GIPE director Rajas Parchure, CSSEIP reader Prashant Bansode and NCAS executive director Sehjo Singh. Other objections raised are the non-compliance with the national commissions and policies on labour and undue importance given to contract labourers despite the presence of temporary labour laws.
“The existing state labour laws have sufficient provisions for temporary workers, which, in turn, allow for adequate employment flexibility to employers. In such an existing scenario, there is no need to have contract labourers specifically for employment flexibility in the market. In fact, instead of making provisions, the practice of contract labourers need to be abolished altogether,” said Ajit Abhyankar, president of the Pune chapter of the Indian Trade Union, who was also part of the consultation. “The draft labour policy is also incomplete in the sense that it does not pay attention to the status of implementation or non-implementation of the existing labour laws and reasons thereof.” In the objections submitted to the state, it has been said that the draft policy is not in consonance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to which the Government of India is a signatory.
“There is no mention of equal opportunity, reasonable accommodation and nondiscrimination against persons with disabilities. It is a fact that the existing reservation for the disabled is hardly implemented. In this respect, the policy is behind its times, especially at a juncture where the right to work for the disabled has already become a matter of national discourse,” said Mumbai solicitor Kanchan Pamnani, who was also part of the public consultation.
“Unorganised and nonindustrial sector employs about 92 per cent of labourers in the state, out of which agriculture still employs a majority of the workforce. The draft labour policy has completely ignored this sector,” said Praveen Mahajan of Aurangabad-based nongovernmental organisation Janarth. Mahajan said that among the bigger failings of the draft policy is that it just does not take into consideration the National Labour Policy and completely fails to mention and refer to the second National Commission on Labour, both being of immense significance in this regard.