Scope Seeks Flexibility To Hire And Fire Contract Labour

The Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), the apex body of public sector undertakings, yesterday sought flexibility to hire or fire workers on contract and suggested an amendment to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act.

The employer should be given flexibility to either hire or fire contract labourers as per his needs while the present act forces the public sector undertakings (PSUs) to regularise all such workers, SCOPE secretary general M A Hakeem said.

Demanding amendment of the Contract Labour Act, he said it is not in tune with the reforms and globalisation where the job markets demand more flexibility without exploitation.

 

It is not that we are demanding withdrawal of Section 10(1) of the Act, there is a question of enforcement too as the advisory committee appointed under the act does not represent all the sectors and often recommends abolition on political considerations, he said.

Clarifying that SCOPE was not opposed to the regulatory functions of the act, Hakeem said abolition of the act would hurt the PSUs as they will be forced to regularise contract labour.

This can become a liability for an organisation and serves as an obstacle in industrial development and growth process, Hakeem emphasised.

SCOPE urged the government to have an advisory committee depending upon a case and to be headed by a neutral person neither leaning towards the labour nor the management. In other words it should be broad-based, Hakeem said.

Central advisory board earlier used to be headed by the minister of labour but now it is headed by a retired bureaucrat.

The issue of contract labour is also receiving attention in the annual meeting of International Labour Organisation (ILO). It has been included in the agenda for its forthcoming meeting in 1998 at Geneva.

After the pronouncement of the judgement in Air India case last year some of the PSUs - SAIL, NTPC, ONGC and Air India - formulated an action plan and subsequently wrote to their respective ministries for moving the labour ministry for suitable amendments in the Contract Labour Act.

Hakeem said, we want all stringent provisions of the act to go so that the competitiveness of the PSUs in the global market is not eroded.