'Our phones are taken away as we enter the room.' 'They are just asking us to sign without any discussion. If you ask for a discussion, they say, 'Sign first'.'
'...because of its permanent nature.' 'If you work for the private sector or for yourself, you are not regarded as being employed,' points out T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
According to draft Code on Social Security, 2019, gig and platform workers will be entitled to life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, among others.
Apple iPhone maker Foxconn has informed the government that 25 per cent of its new hires are married women and its safety protocol, which requires all employees to avoid wearing metal irrespective of gender or religion, is not discriminatory, sources said. In an informal note shared with the government after reports suggested it is not hiring married women, Foxconn stated that such stipulations are not part of its policy and these claims may have been made by those individuals who were not hired, sources said.
A collaborative approach can yield better results in reforming labour laws that can be implemented in the whole country, instead of different states following different norms in their own jurisdictions. That approach could also help the governments convince the trade unions to see merit in these reforms, says A K Bhattacharya.
Of the total 29 major industry groups covered in the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), 'manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products' has seen the highest growth in the number of people engaged between the pre-pandemic period (2019-20) and 2022-23. A Business Standard analysis of the latest ASI results has taken into consideration only industry groups having more than 1,000 operating factories. This industry group, which includes manufacture of electronic components, computer equipment, consumer electronics and optical instruments, among others, saw the total number of people engaged rise nearly 50 per cent to 425,000 from 283,000.
Several on-site labourers in the city want to take special trains being run to transport workers back home. The rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city has caused anxiety among them.
Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya urges state government 'to intervene for an early and amicable resolution for maintaining a positive manufacturing sector ecosystem'.
Recognising job creation for the youth as the foremost challenge for the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced a comprehensive Prime Minister's package to facilitate the employment and skilling of 41 million youth with a central outlay of Rs 2 trillion over the next five-year period. The package will consist of five schemes and initiatives - three focused on jobs and two on skilling.
'We are not opposed to any Indian language. We are against Hindi imposition.'
India's services sector growth touched a four-month high in December, supported by new business inflows on strong demand conditions and easing inflationary pressures, a monthly survey said on Monday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index, rose from 58.4 in November to 59.3 in December, highlighting the strongest rate of expansion in four months.
India's manufacturing sector growth fell to a joint 11-month low of 56.5 in November, restricted by competitive conditions and inflationary pressures amid a softer increase in factory orders, a monthly survey said on Monday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell from 57.5 in October to 56.5 in November, signalling a softer improvement in the health of the sector. However, the pace of growth remained above its long-run average.
An interesting excerpt from Virender Kapoor's latest book Inspiring India: Taking India from Big to Great.
The scheme, which will be effective from July 1, 2019 would benefit 36 million employees and 1.28 million employers. The ESI Act applies to factories with 10 or more workers and provides for medical, cash, maternity, disability and dependent benefits to employees drawing a salary of up to Rs 21,000 per month.
With an urge to get employment, thousands of workers from across the country boarded trains to Lucknow to try their luck in the recruitment drive taking place in Lucknow, to work in war-torned Israel.
The Ministry of Labour & Employment is investigating alleged "unsafe and exploitative work environment" days after the tragic demise of Anna Sebastian Perayil who worked with S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global. Perayil was a 26-year-old chartered accountant (CA) who died allegedly due to extreme work pressure at the firm. "Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil.
'A person is supposed to do 40 to 42 hours of work a week.' 'If a person is working more that, it is exploitation.' 'And it is because of this exploitation that employees experience stress which affects their mental health.' 'Sometimes it even leads to ending their lives. It is very unfortunate.'
'The policy focus of the government should have been on creating more good quality jobs but that was not their focus.'
For the first time in their lives, 186 Pakistani Hindu refugees in Delhi cast their votes in the Delhi Assembly polls, marking a significant moment in their journey towards citizenship. Having received Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, they expressed hope for a better future with permanent homes and stable livelihoods. The refugees, who have lived in makeshift shelters and struggled with daily wage work for decades, felt a sense of belonging and empowerment after exercising their voting right.
The gig economy market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent to reach a gross volume of $455 billion by the end of 2024, according to a white paper by The Forum for Progressive Gig Workers. Estimates suggest the gig economy has the potential to create 90 million jobs and add 1.25 per cent to India's GDP (gross domestic product) over time.
'We face the risk of remaining a low-income country for a very long time unless something changes in the next few years.' 'Instead of constantly talking about becoming a developed economy, we need to start fixing the problems of the economy one by one.' 'There is so much potential, and we are squandering away the opportunity.'
With 7 per cent economic growth, India is not creating enough jobs as reflected by the number of applicants for vacant posts in some states, Reserve Bank's former governor Raghuram Rajan said and suggested the government needs to focus on promoting labour-intensive industries to generate employment. Rajan further said some Indians, especially those at upper level, are comfortable and have high incomes, but consumption growth from the lower half of the country has still not recovered to pre-pandemic level.
There is no need for concern about job losses, Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday and added that the country's unemployment rate would come down below 3 per cent in the future.
Medical help did not reach Singh until an hour and a half later. He was airlifted to a hospital in Rome but died on Wednesday.
The quality of employment has deteriorated in 12 of the 21 major states and Union Territories, as the proportion of workers in regular or salaried jobs declined between July 2022 and June 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a Business Standard analysis of the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office. Assam experienced the most significant decline in the share of workers in salaried work, dropping by 8.7 percentage points to 10.8 per cent in the July 2002-June 2023 period from 19.5 per cent in the July 2021-June 2022 period. This was followed by Delhi (6.2 percentage points), Uttarakhand (5.2 percentage points), and Chhattisgarh (1.6 percentage points).
Nepali labourers are not only the backbone of the state's apple economy but also part of the highly grounded manpower in the orchards, setting an example for other states struggling with the migrant labour question, reports Ashwani Sharma.
Is India witnessing jobless growth or is there actually no issue with employment? The real story is between the first two suggesting that though there is sufficient employment, the challenge is to create well-paying quality jobs, says Amitabh Kant.
Unless we bring about substantive changes, we cannot expect to alter the current situation where low-productivity and low-wage jobs dominate the landscape, the government think-tank observes.
The newly-formed Delhi Cabinet in its first meeting approved the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme in the national capital. The cabinet also decided to present 14 pending CAG reports in the first session of the assembly. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said that the previous AAP government did not allow the health scheme in the city, preventing the people from availing its benefits.
India's unemployment rate is at a record low and the country's labour market is undergoing a structural transformation, a report said on Tuesday. In the new report, the economists at the country's largest lender SBI also pitched for a "reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric" while looking at a subject like employment. "India's unemployment rate is at a record low, India's labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers," the report said.
'Not paying workers enough will end up being self-destructive or harmful for the corporate sector itself.'
In a joint statement issued on Monday, the central trade unions also threatened to give a call for nationwide agitation to protest against such moves by state governments. "The CTUs consider these moves as....gross violation of the Right to Freedom of Association (ILO Convention 87), Rights to Collective Bargaining (ILO Convention 98) and also the internationally accepted norm of eight hour working day espoused by Core Conventions of ILO)," the statement said.
'When I asked whether they would choose a government job that offered Rs 30,000 a month or a private job that offered them Rs 3 lakh a month, without exception, everybody said, "I would rather have the government job!"'
Around 81 per cent of the workers constitute the unorganised sector - devoid of any social security cover and outside the purview of a complex set of labour laws.
A company spokesperson told Business Standard that Amazon was committed to the safety and well-being of its employees. "Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against the people involved in the incident. "The process is underway and we are looking at a potential case of 'separation' for the people involved within the next week or two," the spokesperson added.
Chief executives in the real estate, consumer products, automobiles, construction, and textile sectors said they were all expecting workers to re-join in the next 45-60 days, which would help them ramp-up production from July.
However, demand was still much higher compared to the previous years, underlining the scheme's vital role in providing employment to the rural poor, a vast majority of whom are migrants.
'When you do some job for a few hours, you are hardly earning enough to survive.'
