Mumbai: Ease of doing business in the State appears headed for a setback, with several trade and labour unions coming out strongly against the State government for ignoring their objections to amendments made to The Apprentices Act, 1961.
In its current form, the Act increases the cap on the number of apprentices a firm can employ from 10% of its workforce to 25%. This has invited the ire of as many as 30 trade and labour unions active in the State and nationally, who have raised concerns over job losses and impact on contract labour.
The changes to the Act were ratified by a committee headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2017 and had come into effect in February 2018 after receiving Presidential assent. A meeting with stakeholders to break the deadlock was called by Mr. Fadnavis on April 20, but didn’t yield results, sources said.
They added that the government failed to convince unions that changes made to the Act will only increase formal labour in the industry sector, while reducing contract labour. Source said industries too seemed circumspect of the increase in the cap on apprentices.
The government’s move is apparently a bid to contribute to India’s quest to have more apprentices than the U.K. and the U.S.A, both of which have five lakh apprentices as part of their national workforce. The list is topped by China and Japan, which employ two crore and one crore apprentices respectively. India, in comparison, employs only three lakh apprentices.
Signatories to the union memorandum include the All India Trade Union Congress, Indian National Trade Union Congress, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Hind Mazdoor Sabha and the All India United Trade Union Centre. The signatories collectively account for 70 million workers, union leaders said.
‘Govt. unresponsive’
Uday Bhat, national secretary, AICCTU, claimed the State government isn’t interested in discussing the issue. “These changes to the Apprentices Act will destroy the livelihood of millions of genuine contract labourers. Nine national unions and around 20 from Maharashtra have submitted a written objection to the government, but it is only bothered with creating a cheap labour force.”
The unions are objecting to other changes made to the Act, such as enabling part-time engagement of apprentices up to four hours while undergoing another skill upgrade programme. Earlier, the limit was eight hours. The apprentice will be given a refund of 25% of the prescribed emoluments up to ₹1,500 per month. A senior government official said, “The CM is keen to initiate a dialogue with industries to promote the apprenticeship ecosystem. He has set the government a target of bringing five lakh apprentices onboard in 2018. We have also taken the union demands into consideration.”
As the standoff continues, the government is apprehensive that businesses will stick to the minimum apprentice limit of 2.5% to defuse union anger. An official said, “The unions have politicised the issue, and we don’t know how to handle it. The government is holding back-channel talks, which are yet to bring results.”
As per data available with the Directorate General of Training (DGT), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, there are 98,059 Apprenticeship Training Schemes active in Maharashtra, and 2,09,420 candidates are registered under them. The Central government had notified the National Apprenticeship Promotions Scheme (NAPS) on August 19, 2016. Since then, the State has generated 61,300 apprentices contracts through NAPS, under which 6,850 industries have registered themselves to avail benefits of the changes to the Act.
