The Hindu : National : Trade unions for changes in employment Bill

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Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

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Trade unions for changes in employment Bill

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 23. Central Trade Unions have rejected the proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004 describing as "unacceptable" the dilutions to the initial draft. They demanded an amendment to the Bill to accommodate the deleted provisions.

This was decided during a consultation on the Bill under the aegis of the Institute for Human Development, which extended support for a full-fledged Employment Guarantee Act.

Emphasising on 10 provisions essential for the effectiveness of the Act now missing in the draft tabled in Parliament, the participants said that it lacked time-bound extension of an irreversible guarantee to the whole country, payment of statutory minimum wages, universal entitlement to job guarantee and unemployment allowance. The draft also did not have provision for individual entitlement for all adults, that at least 40 per cent of workers employed in a particular block be women, flexible and inclusive definition of permissible works, centrally funded programme with a role of Panchayati Raj institutions in the implementation of the scheme.

"The absence of these features from the Bill defeats the very purpose of an employment guarantee. It violates the promise to the nation of a universal legal entitlement, made in the national common minimum programme (NCMP)," economist Jean Dreze said.

The NCMP promised the enactment of a National Employment Guarantee Act that would provide a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of employment to begin with on asset-creating public works programmes every year at minimum wages for at least one able-bodied person in every rural, urban, poor and lower middleclass household, the participants said.

Among those present during the consultation were Naveen Chandra (Institute for Human Development), R.A. Mittal (Hind Mazdoor Sabha), Swapan Mukherjee (All-India Central Council of Trade Unions), R.P.K. Murugesan (Indian National Trade Union Congress), Amarjeet Kaur (All-India Trade Union Congress), Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee Unorganised Sector Workers), S. Dev Roye (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) and Suneet Chopra (All-India Agricultural Workers Union).

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