Leaders of major central trade unions on Wednesday made a strong demand before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for restoring the interest rate on Employees Provident Fund to 12 per cent, annulling the Supreme Court ban on strike by government employees, raising Income-Tax ceiling and ensuring that there was no hire and fire labour policy.

Demanding more employment opportunities, the unions also urged for setting up of sixth pay commission for central government employees.

After their first 90-minute interaction with the prime minister, leaders of the trade unions said he assured them that he would consider their demands sympathetically but maintained that it might not be possible to address all of them in the coming Budget because of paucity of time.

An official release later said the prime minister assured the labour leaders that "the Government will sincerely implement all the assurances of the National Common Minimum Programme including the assurances with respect to labour".

The prime minister said the Union Budget for 2004-05 was being presented within a very short time after the government's assumption of office, with many ministers just settling down to work "and therefore, this year's Budget may not be able to address all the issues raised by the trade union leaders."

Singh also urged the union leaders to appreciate the fact that only seven months of the current fiscal year were left.

Appreciating all the ideas expressed by them, he said the government would come up with "concrete proposals" in due course to address all the issues raised.

In its memorandum to the prime minister, CPI(M) affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions demanded restoration of the 12 per cent interest on PF, small savings, General Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund.

It reminded the prime minister of the promise made in the Common Minimum Programme that the United Progressive Alliance government would never take decisions on the EPF without consultations and approval of the EPF Board, CITU secretary W R Varada Rajan said.

The CITU also demanded the reversal of the 'retrogate measure' of replacing the existing 'benefit defined pension scheme' by a new 'contribution defined pension scheme' for new recruits in the government scheme, he said.

On the Supreme Court ban on strike by government employees, the CITU fervently appealed to the prime minister to initiate immediate action in this regard in line with the assurance in the CMP which unambiguously stated that, "rights and benefits earned by workers, including the right to strike according to law, will not be taken away or curtailed."

It also urged the prime minister to rescind the notification issued by the previous government through which a new classification of 'fixed term employment workman' had been introduced.

It demanded legislations to guarantee minimum wage and protection to agriculture labourers, social security to the vast unorganised sector and checking sexual harassment of women workers at workplace.

CITU also sought 100 days of guaranteed employment for at least one able bodied person in every rural, urban poor and lower middle class household as emphasised in the CMP.