Govt to hold talks to with Labour Ministry on proposed social security, labour codes today

The Labour Ministry is in the process of converting 44 laws into four codes -- Industrial Relations, Wages, Social Security and Safety -- to simplify existing labour rules.

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya addresses a Telangana Bankers Comiittee meet in Hyderabad on March 12, 2016. Photo: IANS

Looking to simplify labour rules, the government will hold tripartite discussions on proposed social security and social codes after the conclusion of ongoing Parliament session.

The Labour Ministry is in the process of converting 44 laws into four codes -- Industrial Relations, Wages, Social Security and Safety -- to simplify existing labour rules.

"We will call tripartite discussion after this Parliament session," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told PTI.On the time frame, he said it will be "very soon".

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On Labour Codes on Industrial Relations and Wages, the Minister said, "They will be sent to the Cabinet soon for their approval and then we will place them before Parliament for passage."

While inaugurating an event on the occasion of the International Labour Day, Dattatreya said amidst the ongoing global slowdown, India is the fastest growing nation.

"We are also endowed with the largest young workforce. Employment creation is therefore central to our growth and development strategy," he noted.

He further said the Labour Ministry is taking determined steps to expand the coverage of social security for organised workers and extend the same to hitherto uncovered unorganised workers.

Comprehensive governance reforms based on extensive use of informal technology have been undertaken by retirement fund body EPFO to provide 24x7 online delivery of services.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has allotted around 6.77 crore UAN to its members and around 2.49 crore of these members have activated using their mobile number and have been benefitting from various related services, he added.

The EPFO celebrated May Day with the launch of a special drive -- One Employee-One EPF Account. The mission is to encourage EPF members to consolidate their multiple accounts.

Members whose accounts are scattered face inconveniences such as approaching multiple employers located at multiple locations for settlement of claims.

Besides, they face inconvenience in keeping record of multiple scheme certificates issued. To know about the updated EPF balances, they need to approach multiple offices.

With consolidation, a member can have complete control of his EPF account apart from accessing variety of IT enabled services such as email/sms alerts, access to e-pass book etc.

Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal said EPF members would be requested to provide all their earlier EPF accounts, UAN linked account and the retirement fund will facilitate the transfer of all these accounts into their present account.

Central Provident Fund Commissioner V P Joy said EPFO is now seeking to make Aadhaar a primary identifier. Members having Aadhaar-seeded UAN, saves the inconvenience of claims forms attestation by the employers.

Aadhaar has been uploaded against 1.30 crore Universal Account Number (UAN), out of which 1.03 crore Aadhaar have been digitally authenticated by the establishments.

The Labour Ministry in a release said that in order to boost the process of seeding the UAN with KYC, an 'Incentive Scheme' has been launched for the employers.

Under this scheme a claim refund of up to 10% of administrative charges payable to EPFO can be claimed upon completing specified tasks (furnishing member information and digitally authenticated KYC details), it said.

"The Scheme shall be in operation for one year, beginning January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016," the release said.

It also said that a software has been launched today for centralised processing that will transfer and consolidate accounts with ease.

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