The Cabinet has cleared a women-friendly draft labour policy that focusses on gender equality and on the job security of workers in the unorganised sector.
The policy seeks to fix the minimum wages at ₹600 after reviewing the wage structure and working conditions and ensuring the same in all sectors. The policy says that the minimum wages would be revised after considering the living standards.
It stresses the need for complementary and symbiotic relations between workers and industrialists and restructuring the job timings, wage structure, job security norms and such others. Wrong practices in the job sector should be done away with and workers should get their due wages, respect and social security in all sectors.
Wages should be disbursed online and for the workers in the unorganised sectors, an Aadhaar-based online registration system should be introduced to ensure job security.
A labour bank should be constituted for domestic workers. The headload workers welfare fund scheme should be extended to more areas to avoid labour disputes. Industrial Relations Committees should be constituted in agriculture, IT, fisheries and such other sectors.
Flaws in the self-certification scheme introduced by the Labour Department in IT sector should be rectified and extended to other areas in phases. Wages should be distributed through bank accounts of workers.
A labour intelligence cell would be formed for effective enforcement of labour laws and for creating a labour friendly milieu. Procedures for registration and licensing from the Labour Department would be simplified.
A manual would be prepared for inspections by department officials to find out violations.
