Keep employees in mind while amending labour laws: JMM to govt

Ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) today asked the Centre to keep in mind the interests of "hardworking employees" while amending labour laws, "which should protect their jobs".
"The policy of contractual labour should end as such practices deny the employees of any protection of labour laws," JMM General Secretary Suprio Bhattacharya said here.
"Any amendment of labour laws should be aimed at strengthening the interests of the workers and labour force," he said while reacting to Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the Centre was amending a number of labour laws.
Bhattacharya demanded uniform wages for the labour force unlike the "existing" policy in public and private sectors, including the agriculture sector.

"How can a worker of the same city get less or more wages than others?" he asked, demanding uniform wages and proper bonus distribution among the employees.
Meanwhile, ruling ally Congress asked the Narendra Modi-led government to take union leaders in confidence before finalising labour laws.

"Any amendment in the Labour Act should be in the interest of the labour force. So union leaders should be consulted and taken into confidence during the process," said Jharkhand PCC General Secretary Sailesh Sinha.
CITU's all-India Secretary D D Ramanandan said all trade unions have chalked out protest programmes for the next couple of months and would culminate them in a rally in Delhi against the Centre's initiative to amend labour laws.

"The trade unions are against the amendment as it is pro-employer. Even the BJP's labour wing protested change in labour laws in Rajasthan," Ramanandan said.
CPI (ML-Liberation)'s Vinod Kumar Singh said, "Amendment towards protection of labour force is good, but it is being done with an aim to protect the interests of the corporate sector."
"Even now people are working more than eight hours, flouting the existing law. Amendments should not be a cover to squeeze the labour force further," he added.