Labour Minister interacts with HR heads in a rare event

In a rare event, Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupinder Yadav, had an interaction with the HR heads of various sectors across manufacturing, staffing, automotive, hospitality and so on.

This interaction was facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). To begin with, Sunil Barthwal, secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, initiated the dialogue inviting comments from all participants on various topics, such as improving service delivery in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Work from Home, better utilisation of services of the National Career Service Portal and enhancing women’s participation in the labour force.

The HR heads appreciated the formulation of the four new labour codes and insisted on rolling them out as early as possible. Chandrajeet Banerjee, director general, CII, moderated the conversation with the HR heads and invited further comments from them. The suggestions which came forth from the HR heads pertained to introduction of guaranteed employment in urban areas, reorientation of education curricula to align with the emerging technologies, and use of apprenticeship for employment generation.

In the interaction, Yadav mentioned the formulation of committees to resolve the grievances of 6.5 crore EPFO members. He also talked about strengthening technological interventions, capacity building, effective monitoring of ongoing projects and enhancing coverage under social security.

Yadav also mentioned that for better governance and policy making, having better data points is also important. Therefore, Yadav announced that apart from the All India Quarter Employment Survey (AIQES), the Government will also launch an area-based area-frame establishment survey for establishments having 9 or less workers in formal and informal sectors.

The Union Minister also talked about the success of the e-Shram portal, which maps occupations in about 400 catagories of all unorganised workers. As per Yadav, the portal has recorded 21 crore registrations as of now and on an everyday basis, 45 lakh people are self-registering themselves, which is up from 10 lakh since the time of launch. All workers registering on e-shram portal get free insurance of Rs 2 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and each worker gets a downloadable identity card, for which the expenditure is borne by the Central government.

Yadav ended the interaction on a positive note saying such interactions with the HR heads and CEOs will be organised more frequently to ensure better worker conditions and to create employment in the country.