Govt proposes to relax labour laws for contract workers hiring

To improve ease of doing business, government is proposing relaxed set of labour laws for hiring of contract workers with greater flexibility to companies and a proposal on this may soon be taken to the Cabinet.
"The proposal is ready and can be presented in the Cabinet very soon. And after that the related bill can be presented in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament," a Labour Ministry official said today.
The government is seeing labour law reforms as a key to create jobs and encourage investment, the official said.
"The NDA government's central idea is to create jobs and encourage investment. And labour reforms are seen as one of the factors to facilitate ease of doing business as well as to bring in flexibility," the official said.

The Labour Ministry is proposing to relax some regulations to make hiring of contract workers easy.
"The idea is to give a higher compensation package of say 45 days and bring in flexibility in hiring of contract workers. We have to take a very balanced approach. Also, tripartite consultations are underway," said the official.

At present, the compensation package related with contract labour is of about 15 days.
Also, the official said that the Ministry is working on a plan to launch 100 career centres to bring on board job seekers and employers together.
For this purpose a portal will also be set up soon. "The idea is to have a dynamic labour market reform. And to bring in job seekers, employers and skill providers on board.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interview to PTI recently had said the government was focused on creating jobs and was ready to open more sectors for foreign investment.
The Prime Minister had said that areas with high employment potential and strong local talent will be the focus to woo foreign investment.