The Centre for Transparency and Accountability in Governance – National Law University, Delhi in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Government of India) and V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, organised a discussion on the Draft Code on Social Security and Labour Welfare, 2017 on 30 May 2017, at National Law University Delhi. The discussion was attended by academicians from different parts of the country as well as representatives from the Ministry of Labour.
The panelists and resource persons included Dr. SC Srivastava of the National Labour Law Association, Ms. Preetham Balakrishnan and Ms. Ruchi Singh of Tamil Nadu National Law School, Dr. Kavita Solanki and Amar Pal Singh of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dr. Sharma and Amit Vashist of Ministry of Labour, Saurabh Bhattacharjee from NUJS Kolkata, Sanjay Upadhyaya from V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, Dr. Kiran Rai who is the Dean of Galgotia University, Dr. Maheshwar Singh of NLU Delhi, Professor SC Rai from NLU Patna, Santhi Narayanan from Sharda University, Professor S. Sachidananda from NLU Delhi and Bincy Mathew from Ambedkar University.
The main issues that were discussed during the session included the definition clause, entitlement, period and amount of maternity benefit, jurisdiction and powers of central board and state board, registration of workers, welfare funds, etc. A number of suggestions were made, varying from the language used in the Code to the barriers in its implementation. The major points of deliberation included the definition of workers, which leaves out a number of workers from the unorganized sector, such as rickshaw pullers, agricultural workers and also migrant workers- both inter-state and international. Maternity benefits should accrue irrespective of the 80 days time period for which the employee is required to be working for the organization. There should be a clarification regarding the schemes owned by the Central Government and those by the State Government. A special category of disabled persons should also be included in the Code.
In their concluding remarks, the representatives of Ministry of Labour thanked the organizers as also the panelists and resource persons for their valuable inputs.