Bombay leaks Desk
Mumbai:In the opening remarks he highlighted achievements of Ministry in past three years and said that the focus of the government was on Reforms ,Employment generation , effective compliance of labour laws along with facilitating ease of doing business and delivery of social security through the use of technology
He added that in general several important laws have been passed/amended by the Parliament and same are in the process of passing/amendment.
The Child Labour (Prohibition And Regulation) Amendment Act 2016, and in particular which completely prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years and also prohibits employing adolescents (14-18 years) in hazardous industries or processes.
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment ) Act 2017 has increased maternity leave to working women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for first two surviving children and 12 weeks for more than two children.
The Payment of Wages(Amendment) Act,2017 enables the employers to pay the wages to their employees by cash or cheque or crediting it to their bank account.
The Employees’ Compensation (Amendment) Act, 2017 has the provision to increase the penalty for contravention of Act from present Rs.5000/- to Rs. 50,000/- extendable to Rs.1 Lakh.
Payment of Bonus (Amendment )Act, 2015 has enhanced the eligibility limit under section 2(13) from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs.21,000/- per month.
The Minister further stated that for the purpose of simplification and rationalisation of labour laws four labour codes are being introduced . The Group of Ministers on codification and rationalisation of Central Labour laws had approved the Labour Code on Wages and it would be sent to cabinet for approval.The ministry is also working on The Labour Code on Industrial Relations ,the Labour Code on Occupational Safety and Working Conditions (drafting stage) and the Labour Code on Social Security (in public domain for elicting public opinion)
The Minister highlighted the importance of the schemes of the government Make in India , Skill India & Digital India for employment generation and MUDRA in stimulating entrepreneurship.
The Minister informed that ESIC is now covering complete districts instead of targeted industrial clusters. Coverage expanded to all 393 districts where these clusters are located. 301 districts have been fully covered. In the second phase, the target is to cover all the remaining districts of the country.
Shram Suvidha Portal is a single unified web portal for submissions of common Annual Return under 9 Central Acts and Unique Labour Identification Number (LIN) is allotted to Units and 19,23,162 Lakhs LIN allotted as on on 22nd May, 2017
Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) scheme has been announced to incentivize employers for new employment. Government will be paying the 8.33% EPS contribution for these new employment for the period of 3 years. For the textile (Apparel & made up) sector, Government will also pay the 3.67% EPF contribution of employers for these new employees. Till now benefit have been transferred to 1,954 establishments covering 75,848 beneficiaries under the scheme with an expenditure of Rs. 6 crores (approx.)
Housing Scheme has been launched by EPFO in which members would form co operative societies and can avail withdrawal of upto 90 % of their PF amount for the purpose of acquisition of house . Members would also be eligible for interest subsidy under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
At the end Minister informed that decision has been taken by the CBT, EPF to increase investments to 15 % of the EPF corpus in Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) . The returns on these category of investments for past financial year has been healthy @ 13.72 % and dividend of 434 crores has also been earned . He further added that the ministry and EPFO are holding discussion to decide upon the exit policy of this category of investments .
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