Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar said that ‘Labour’ comes under Concurrent list and Central and State Governments makes coordinated efforts for welfare of workers. He was addressing Regional Labour Conference in Bhubaneswar today. Labour Ministers and senior officials of six states Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andaman & Nikobar along with senior officials of Labour Ministry participated in the conference. Regional Conferences help in creating better coordination between Central and State Governments. Central Labour Laws are framed by Central Government but States implement them and bring changes in them keeping in view their special geographical and demographic situation after consultation with the centre. He said that any law can attains it’s goal by proper implementation and it is the State Governments which are implementing them on ground.Shri Gangwar said that recently Government of India has taken many steps for the welfare of workforce of the country.
Code on Wages has been passed by Parliament in August this year and now State Governments should frame rules regarding Code on Wages, fix minimum wages and organize awareness campaign so that maximum number of unorganized sector workers may be benefitted.Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions has been sent to Parliamentary Standing Committee after being introduced in the Lok Sabha. This is also an important legislation which subsumes 13 Central labour laws and covers health, security and working conditions issues of the workers.Apart from simplifications of Labour laws, Government of India has launched Pension Scheme for unorganized sector workers and small traders and self employed persons. Approximately 33 lakh unorganized sector workers have associated themselves for Pension Scheme. But, to link around 40 crore unorganized sector workers to the scheme, coordination from all the State Governments is essential.He further said that we are using information technology to improve services of EPFO and ESIC and bring more transparency and accountability in them. He expressed hope that this conference will be successful in creating better coordination with State Governments.