Regional Labour conference

Question: Where did the Regional Labour Conference take place On October 22, 2019?
(a) Bhubaneswar
(b) Rajkot
(c) Udaipur
(d) New Delhi
Answer: (a)
Related facts:

  • The Regional Labour Conference took place in Bhubaneswar on October 22 2019. Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar chaired the conference.
  • The category of ‘Labour’ comes under Concurrent list and Central and State Governments makes coordinated efforts for welfare of workers..
  • 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.

Major programs of government for Labour welfare:

  • 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 2019 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.
  • There is however a need of the coordination from all the State Governments to link around 40 crore unorganized sector workers.
  • Enhanced usage of information technology to improve services of EPFO and ESIC and bring more transparency and accountability in them.

Links:
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1588731