19th June 2014
Madam Gauri Kumar,
Secretary to Govt of India
Ministry of Labour & Employment
Shram Shakti Bhawan
Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110001
Sub: Proposals to amend the Factories Act 1948, Minimum Wages Act 1948 and Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act 1986 as circulated through your website inviting comments/observation in June 2014
Dear Madam,
In respect of above-referred subjects, following is our response:
No doubt, the issues under reference along with the tardy implementation of the concerned Acts along with other important Acts surfaced in discussion in various forums during last couple of years but it is somewhat unusual reflecting an undue haste, that proposals for amendments of these three Acts have been circulated almost one after another within a span of a fortnight in June 2014, even before formally consulting the central trade unions before giving the amendment proposals a final shape, as per usual practice.
Amendments to above Acts, you will appreciate, are going to have direct impact on the workers. Before going in for scrutinizing the proposals clause by clause, the issue itself needs to be discussed with the Central Trade unions -the main stakeholder representing those directly effected or affected by the such amendments to decide on issues and priorities of such amendment exercise.
There are number of incongruities/inconsistencies in the proposals for amendments which are required to be closely looked into. For example, amendment proposals on Minimum Wages Act 1948 finalised in late 2013 referred to the discussion in 40th Indian Labour Conference held in November 2005 but has not taken into account at all the consensus recommendation of the 44th Indian Labour Conference held on 14-15 February 2012 which laid down the basis of formulating the minimum wage level. There are other examples too.
However, CITU urges upon that, the entire issue including priorities of amendments to the said Acts should be discussed with the Central Trade Unions before finalization of the proposals of amendments and any step taken thereon.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
General Secretary
