India: Manpower,
Employment Policy and Labour Welfare
Introduction
"During the pre-independence
period, industrial relations policy of the British Government was one of
laissez faire and also of selective intervention. There were hardly any labour
welfare schemes. After independence, labour legislations have formed
the basis for industrial relations and social security. These legislations
have also provided machinery for bipartite and tripartite consultations for
settlement of disputes.
Soon after
independence, the government at a tripartite conference in December 1947
adopted the industrial truce resolution. Several legislations, including the
following, were enacted to maintain industrial peace and harmony: Factories
Act, 1948, Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 and Minimum Wages
Act, 1948. The payment of bonus act was passed in 1965.
In the early 1990s,
the process of economic reforms was set in motion when the government
introduced a series of measures to reduce control on industries, particularly
large industries. The workers have opposed economic liberalisation policy for
fear of unemployment while entrepreneurs have welcomed it in the hope of new
opportunities to improve Indian industries. The new economic policy has
directly affected industrial relations in the country, because the government
has to play a dual role, one of protecting the interest of the workers, and
second to allow a free interplay of the market forces. Economic reforms, by
removing barriers to entry, have created competitive markets. Fiscal
stabilisation has resulted in drastic reduction in budgetary support to the public
sector commercial enterprises while exposing these enterprises to increased
competition from private sector.
Labour and Labour
Welfare sub-sector consists of six main programmes viz. Labour Administration,
Rehabilitation of bonded labour, Assistance to Labour Cooperatives, Craftsmen
training programme, Apprenticeship training programme, Employment Services and Sanjay
Gandhi Swavalamban Yojana.
Manpower, employment
policy and labour welfare in India: post-independence developments:
Many researches has
been done in the following themes, such as
1. Manpower: trends
and magnitude.
2. Employment
policies and programmes.
3. Labour welfare:
legal framework and initiatives.
4. Women workers:
legislations and empowerment.
5. Industrial
relations and labour laws.
6. Restructuring of
labour laws: the great debate.
7. Labour laws and
welfare: India and ILO.
8. Labour reforms:
India and WTO. II. India's Five Year Plans at a glance. III. Edited extracts
from India's Five Year Plans on employment and labour related matters (I plan
to X plan including mid-term appraisal of the X Plan).
Labour and labour
welfare
Labour sector
addresses multi-dimensional socio-economic aspects affecting labour welfare,
productivity, living standards of labour force and social security. To
raise living standards of the work force and achieve higher productivity, skill
up gradation through suitable training is of utmost importance. Manpower
development to provide adequate labour force of appropriate skills and quality
to different sectors is essential for rapid socioeconomic development.
Employment generation in all the productive sectors is one of the basic
objectives. In this context, efforts are being made for providing the
environment for self-employment both in urban and rural areas. During the Ninth
Plan period, elimination of undesirable practices such as child labour, bonded
labour, and aspects such as ensuring workers’ safety and social security,
looking after labour welfare and providing of the necessary support measures
for sorting out problems relating to employment of both men and women workers
in different sectors has received priority attention.
The Central Board of
Workers Education through its regional offices is striving to educate the
workers to help to avoid wasteful expenditure, adopting cost effectiveness and
by enhancing productivity of qualitative nature. They have been conducting the
following programmes:
o
Rural Awareness Programme.
o
Functional Adult Literacy
Classes.
o
Short-term programmes for the
unorganised sector to educate them on their rights, ethics and hygiene.
o
Participative Management.
o
Orientation Courses for Rural
Educators.
o
Leadership Development Programme for
Rural Workers.
Scope of labour
welfare work
It is somewhat
difficult to accurately lay down the scope of labour welfare work, especially
because of the fact that labour class is composed of dynamic individuals with
complex needs. In a world of changing values, where ideologies are rapidly
undergoing transformation, rigid statements about the field of labour welfare
need to be revised. Labour welfare work is increasing with the growing
knowledge and experience of techniques. An able welfare officer would,
therefore, include in his welfare programme the activities that would be
conducive to the well-being of the worker and his family. The test of the
welfare activity is that it removes, directly or indirectly, any hindrance,
physical or mental of the worker and restores to him the peace and joy of
living the welfare work embraces the worker and his family. The following list,
which is by no means exhaustive, gives the items under which welfare work
should be conducted inside and outside the work place:
(1)
Conditions of work environment: The workshop
sanitation and cleanliness, humidity, ventilation, lighting, elimination of
dust, smoke, fumes and gases, convenience and comfort during work, operative
postures, sitting arrangements etc; distribution of work hours and provision
for rest times, breaks and workmen’s safety measures.
(2)
Workers health services: These should include
factory health centre; medical examination of workers, factory dispensary and
clinic for general treatment; infant welfare; women’s general education;
workers recreation facilities; education, etc;
(3)
Labour welfare programme: These should
cover factory council consisting of representatives of labour and employers;
social welfare departments; interview and vocational testing; employment,
follow-up, research bureau; workmen’s arbitration council.
(4)
Labour’s Economic welfare programme: These
should include co-operatives or fair price shops for consumer necessities;
co-operative credit society, thrift schemes and savings bank; health insurance;
employment bureau; etc.
(5)
General welfare work:
This should relate to
housing and family care.
Central
Sector
There are four types
of initiatives through the Plan for the Labour and Labour Welfare Sector. They
are:
i. Training for
skills development
ii.
Services to job seekers
iii.
Welfare of Labour
iv.
Administration of Labour regulations
The V.V. Giri National
Labour Institute, a fully funded autonomous body of the Ministry of labour,
conducts action oriented research and provides training to grass root level
workers in the trade union movement, both in the urban and rural areas and also
to officers dealing with industrial relations, personnel management, labour
welfare etc.
There are a variety
of laws enacted and schemes established by the Central/State Governments with a
view to provide for social security and welfare of specific
categories of working people. The principal social security laws
enacted centrally are the following:
1.
The Workmen's compensation Act, 1923 (WC.Act.)
2.
The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 (ESI Act)
3.
The Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1953 (EPF
& MP Act)
4.
The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (MB Act)
5.
The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (PG Act)
The cash benefits
under the ESI Act are administered by the Central Government through the
Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), whereas medical care under the
ESI Act is being administered by the State Government and Union Territory
Administration. The Payment of Gratuity Act is administered by the Central
Government in establishments under its control, establishments having branches
in more than one State, major ports, mines, oil fields and the Railways and by
the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations in all other cases.
In mines and circus industry, the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act are
being administered by the Central Government through the Chief Labour
Commissioner (Central) and by the State Governments in factories, plantations
and other establishments. The provisions of the WC Act are being administered
exclusively by State Governments.
Craftsmen
Training Scheme
Craftsmen Training
Scheme (CTS) under the National Vocational Training System was introduced in
1950 for imparting skill training.
Training is imparted
mainly in engineering trades. A few trades out side the engineering field are
also covered but the bulk of the services sector and other needs of industries
other than manufacturing, are not handled by DGE&T.
Two major resources
for such training are the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and the 25000
industrial establishments that take part in Apprentice Training.
The existing training
institutions have, no doubt, been meeting a significant part of the
requirements of the skilled manpower of the organised industry. It, however,
seems necessary that the processes of restructuring and reorientation of their
courses are made more dynamic with a view to quickly respond to the labour
market. A greater involvement of industry in planning and running the training
system would also be necessary for this purpose. For skill upgradation of the
workers in the unorganised sector, flexibility in the duration, timing and
location of training courses would need to be introduced.
In the changed
economic scenario, where displacement of labour is inevitable and existing
labour force is expected to get retrenched, a special training scheme is also
being implemented by the Ministry of labour, so that, the workers thus
retrenched are not affected adversely. This scheme is funded out of the National
Revival fund (NRF). Under this scheme, payments are made to the workers who are
voluntarily retiring and also for retraining and redeployment of retrenched
workers.
Services
to job seekers
To provide services
to job seekers is another important initiative taken by the Labour and Labour
Welfare Plan. To achieve this objective, the National Employment Service has
been established.
National
Employment Service
It consists of a
network of more then one thousand Employment Exchanges spread throughout the
country. These Employment Exchanges continue to provide placement vocational
guidance services to job seekers registered with them. Special emphasis was
laid on promotion of self employment by suitably motivating and guiding job
seekers.
The governments now
reach the job seekers directly when a sizable job demand arises. The number of
jobs in public sector has reduced sharply with the reorientation of the role of
economic planning. The National Employment Service in the context of the newly
emerging market scenario has to be reoriented. The Employment Services has now
accepted its enhanced role and is paying greater attention to compilation and
dissemination of comprehensive labour market information.
The Employment
Service continued to pay special attention to the needs of the weaker section
of society. In addition, there are also plan schemes for modernisation and
computerisation of employment exchanges.
Welfare
of labour
One of the major
concerns of the Government has been the improvement of labour welfare with
increasing productivity and provision of a reasonable level of social
security. The planning process attempts to achieve these goals by monitoring
working conditions and creation of industrial harmony through an infrastructure
for healthy industrial relations.
Special drives for
inspections under the Crash Programmes & Task Force inspections were
organised during the year for extending coverage of labour laws like the Minimum
Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Equal Remuneration Act & Contract
Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act to workers in the unorganised /
informal sector.
There are at present
12 Industrial Tribunals cum Labour Courts constituted by Ministry of Labour
dealing with industrial disputes in respect of which the Central Govt. is the
appropriate authority.
Welfare
Funds
The Ministry of
Labour is administering five welfare funds for beedi, cine and certain
categories of non coal mine workers. The funds have been and set up under the
following Acts of Parliament:
- The mica mines
Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1946.
- The Limestone
and Dolomite Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act.
- The Iron Ore,
Manganese Ore and Chrome Ore Mines Labour Welfare Fund Act 1976.
- The Beedi
Workers' Welfare fund Act, 1976 5.The Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981
The fund created by these acts, is used by the Central Government for the
Welfare of Workers under these occupations.
Agriculture
Workers
Agriculture Workers
constitute by far the largest segment of workers in the unorganised sector.
These workers get employment for less then six months in a year and have to
migrate to other areas for alternative employment. Several measures have been
taken to protect the interests of the agricultural workers. The very first
legislation-the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is applied to the agriculture
sector also. Measures have also been taken to look into the interest of
construction workers. Many enactments were extended to the include construction
workers.
Child
Labour
According to the 2001
Census, the number of working children in the country was of the order of 13.36
million. The existence of child labour in hazardous industries is a great
problem in India. Non availability of accurate, authentic and up to date data
on child labour has been a major handicap in planned intervention for
eradication of this social evil. Efforts are underway in the Ninth Plan, to
modify and improve the existing National Child Labour Project.
Rehabilitation
of Bonded Labour
A Centrally Sponsored
Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Labour in 1978-79 for the
identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers. The scheme
envisages provision of rehabilitation grant up to a ceiling limit of Rs.
10,000/- per freed bonded labourer, half of which is given as central
share.
Women
Labour
The Ministry of
Labour has set up a Women Labour Cell in 1975. The intention was to focus
attention on the lot of working women with a view to improving it. An important
activity of the Cell is to convene the meeting of the Central Advisory
Committee which has been constituted under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 and
follow up the recommendations made by the Committee.
Another important
activity of the Women Cell is to examine and process project proposals to carry
out studies on matters affecting women workers and also to fund programmes
aimed at improving their economic well being. Several projects aimed at
improving the working conditions of women and raising their economic level were
processed by the Women Cell of the Ministry of Labour. The Cell also give
grants-in-aid to voluntary organisation to carry out research studies on
problems of women workers, their employability and the extent of their
displacement on account of technological and various other changes. This scheme
was introduced with the intention of furthering Government’s policy of helping
women workers to become aware of their rights and opportunities and also become
economically independent.
Occupational
Safety and Health
The Constitution of
India contains specific provisions on Occupational Safety and Health of
workers. The Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) and Directorate General
of Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) strive to achieve
occupational safety and health in mines factories and ports. The schemes
relating to occupational safety concentrate on improvement of work environment,
man-machinery interface, control and prevention of chemical hazards,
development of protective gears and equipment, training in safety measures and development
of safety and health information system.
Directorate General
of Factory Advise, Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) This organisation
functions as the technical arm of the ministry in matters concerning with
safety, health and welfare of workers in factories and ports / docks.
Directorate
General of Mines Safety (DGMS)
The Directorate
General of Mines Safety which is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Labour
is entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing the provisions of the Mines
Act, 1952. With a view to ensuring enforcement of necessary safety measures in
mines, inspections and enquiries are carried out by the inspecting
officers.
Labour
Statistics
The Labour Bureau is
responsible for collection, compilation and publication of statistical and
other information regarding employment, wages, earnings, industrial relations,
working conditions etc. It also compiles and publishes the consumer Price Index
Numbers for industrial and agricultural workers. The Bureau further renders necessary
assistance to the States for conducting training programmes in Labour
Statistics of State/District/Unit levels.
Workers'
Education
The Central Board of
Workers Education is dealing with schemes for training of workers in the
techniques of trade unionism and in bringing about consciousness among workers
about their rights, duties and responsibilities. The Board has also undertaken
programmes for rural workers' education and functional adult education.
Programs
of the State Sector
Important programmes
undertaken by the State Governments relate to diversification and expansion of
the vocational training programme, improvement in the quality of training and
extension of training opportunities for women, the World Bank-assisted Vocational
Training Project, extension and modernisation of employment services,
strengthening of labour administration, rehabilitation of bonded labour,
welfare of rural and urban unorganised labour etc. Some of the State
Governments have attempted to enhance the utility of the employment service
set-up.
Last, but not the
least is the fact that labour welfare must aim at helping workers to help
themselves in the long run. This helps them to become more responsible and more
efficient.
New
scheme can be introduced with considering ……………….
Welfare includes
anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is
provided over and above the wages. Welfare helps in keeping the morale and
motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer
duration. The welfare measures need not be in monetary terms only but in any
kind / forms. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions,
creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial
relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the
workers and their families. Labour welfare entails all those activities of
employer, which are directed towards providing the employees with certain
facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries.
Labour welfare has
the following objectives:
- To provide
better life and health to the workers
- To make the
workers happy and satisfied
- To relieve
workers from industrial fatigue and to improve intellectual, cultural and
material conditions of living of the workers.
A new measure welfare
scheme must be featured with following:
- It must be
included with various facilities, services and amenities provided to
workers for improving their health, efficiency, economic betterment and
social status.
- It’s measures
are in addition to regular wages and other economic benefits available to
workers due to legal provisions and collective bargaining
- It should be
flexible and ever-changing. New welfare measures are added to the existing
ones from time to time.
- It measures may
be introduced by the employers, government, employees or by any social or
charitable agency.
- The purpose of
new labour welfare is to bring about the development of the whole
personality of the workers to make a better workforce. The very logic
behind providing welfare schemes is to create efficient, healthy, loyal
and satisfied labour force for the organization. The purpose of providing
such facilities is to make their work life better and also to raise their
standard of living.
The following
benefits from new welfare measures can be summarized as follows:
They provide with
better physical and mental health to workers and thus promote a healthy work
environment· Facilities like housing schemes, medical benefits, and education
and recreation facilities for workers’ families help in raising their standards
of living. This makes workers to pay more attention towards work and thus
increases their productivity.
In new welfare scheme
employers get stable labour force by providing welfare facilities. Workers take
active interest in their jobs and work with a feeling of involvement and
participation.
New Employee welfare
measures increases the productivity of organization and promote healthy
industrial relations thereby maintaining industrial peace. The social evils
prevalent among the labours such as substance abuse, etc are reduced to a
greater extent by this welfare policy.
Whatever welfare
facilities provide by the organization to their employees it has to keep their
motivation levels high. New employee welfare schemes can be classified as
traditionally into two categories viz. statutory and non-statutory welfare
schemes. (The statutory schemes are those schemes that are compulsory to
provide by an organization as compliance to the laws governing employee health
and safety. These include provisions provided in industrial acts like Factories
Act 1948, Dock Workers Act (safety, health and welfare) 1986, Mines Act 1962.
The non statutory schemes differ from organization to organization and from
industry to industry).
STATUTORY WELFARE
SCHEMES: The statutory welfare schemes can introduce included with the following
provisions:
1. Drinking
Water
2. Facilities for
sitting
3. First aid
appliances
4. Latrines and
Urinals
5. Canteen
facilities
6. Spittoons
7. Lighting
8. Washing
places
9. Changing
rooms
10. Rest rooms
NON STATUTORY
SCHEMES: A new non statutory welfare schemes may include the following
schemes:
1.
Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups)
2.
Flexi-time
3.
Employee Assistance Programs
4.
Harassment Policy
5.
Maternity & Adoption Leave
6.
Medi-claim Insurance Scheme
7.
Employee Referral Scheme
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See Also:
- Employee’s State Insurance Act,1948
- Employees’ Pension Scheme
- Factories Act, 1948
- Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972
- Labour Welfare
- Maternity Benefit Act
- Minimum Wages Act, 1948
- Right of Workers
- Social Security System
- Welfare Program: Implementation of welfare programs
- Workmen’s Compensation Act -1923 (India)
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