Govt unlikely to push labour reforms bills in next Par session

Government is unlikely to push its labour reform bills in the upcoming session of Parliament as protests over proposals to tax and restrict PF withdrawals has put it "on the back foot", a trade union leader said.
"Now after rolling back proposals to tax PF and put restrictions on withdrawals of retirement money, government is on the back foot. They are unlikely to push any labour law amendment bill or new draft in Parliament for passage," All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said.
"They have already taken enough unilateral anti-workers decision. The government already faced strong protests on these issues."

The next Parliament session is begining on Monday and will go on for less than three weeks till May 13.
Sachdev said, "Government will be more concerned about passage of proposed budget and other important business."
Earlier in February addressing a public function at Coimbatore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted that government was engaged in carrying out labour reforms through consensus and dialogue with stakeholders including workers without compromising on their genuine protections and rights.

"We are progressing on the reform path by building consensus on these reforms through extensive stakeholder consultations with employers, worker's representatives, and state governments," he had said.

In the Budget session, the government could not push any bill under its ambitious labour reforms agenda.
Unions have been accusing government of carrying out labour reforms unilaterally without proper consultations.
They had opposed industrial relation code bill which provides for allowing firms with up to 300 workers to go for closure, lay off or retrenchment without government permission.
Similarly, the unions are also not in favour of small factories bill which provides for exempting units with less than 40 workers from 14 labour laws like EPF Act and ESIC Act.
That means these firms are not required to subscribe to mandatory social securities schemes run by retirement fund body EPFO and ESIC. They can buy provident fund and health insurance schemes from open markets.