Page 33 - Labor
MGNREGA gets additional Rs 6,000 crore; highest ever total allocation in a fiscal
The government Tuesday said it has made an additional allocation of over Rs 6,000 crore to rural employment scheme MGNREGA, taking the total allocation to Rs 61,084 crores, which is highest ever in a financial year. The additional allocation comes after nearly 90 lawmakers, several prominent civil society members, activists, leaders of farmers' movements and former bureaucrats wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concerns over fund crunch. "The government of India has allocated an additional Rs 6,084 crore to MGNREGA. This brings the total allocation to the scheme to Rs 61,084 crore in 2018-19, making it the highest ever allocation," the Union Rural Development Ministry said. Over the last four years the Centre has completed major reforms in the MGNREGA to transform it into a resource for sustainable livelihoods for the poor, it said. The governance reforms in the act and thrust on sustainable livelihoods through durable assets has ensured better lives for the poor through ..
Delhi LG constitutes Minimum Wage Advisory Board
To advise the Delhi government over fixing and revising minimum wages for different categories of workers, Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal has constituted the Minimum Wage Advisory Board, an official said on Tuesday.
Veteran journalist Rajendra Prabhu passes away
Veteran journalist Rajendra Prabhu, who was at the forefront of media trade union movement, passed away after a brief illness, a statement issued Tuesday stated. He was 85. Prabhu passed away at Sharda Medical College, Greater Noida, Monday night. He had undergone cardiac surgery about a month back and was not keeping well since then, the statement released by the Delhi Journalists Association (DJA) said. He is survived by his wife and five children -- three sons and two daughters. Prabhu was active in trade union activities since his college days. He played a key role in the formation of the National Union of Journalists (India) in 1972 and moulded three generations of leaders in the Union. Right from the first wage board for journalists till the latest Majithia Wage Board, he played a key role in ensuring fair wages and benefits to journalists, the statement said.
Hundreds of flights axed as fresh strike hits German airports
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at eight German airports Tuesday, including at the nation's busiest travel hub Frankfurt, as security staff walked off the job in a deepening row over pay. Germany's powerful Verdi union said the strike would last from 02:00 am until 8:00 pm at Frankfurt airport, with walkouts in Munich, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden and Erfurt following roughly the same schedule. At least 220,000 travellers would be hit by cancellations and delays, the ADV airport association said, in a calculation that includes knock-on effects at other airports. Frankfurt airport operator Fraport, which axed 617 out of around 1,200 scheduled flights, urged passengers not to come to Europe's fourth-busiest airport during the strike. "Security doesn't come free," read a banner held aloft by Verdi members demonstrating at the airport, clad in yellow high-visibility jackets. German passenger Brigitte Inhof told AFP that she was going to have to travel by bus to a ...
BEST strike continues for 8th day
The BEST bus strike in Mumbai continued for the eighth day on Tuesday as the agitating workers and the management of the civic-run transport undertaking failed to reach an agreement. Over 32,000 employees of the various workers' unions of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) have been on strike since Tuesday last week and 3200-odd buses in its fleet are off the roads. The Bombay High Court Tuesday directed the BEST workers' union to take a final decision on the withdrawal of its ongoing strike and inform the court on Wednesday. However, the ongoing negotiations between the workers' unions and the BEST management as well as the intervention of the state government and political leaders failed to end the deadlock. "The state government's high-powered committee has made up its mind to accept the union's major demand of merging the BEST budget with that of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a decision to this effect is likely to ...
Innowave IT Infra to hire 1,500 employees in 2019
Solution-focused, e-governance player Innowave IT infrastructures Tuesday said it plans to increase the company's headcount by 1,500 in 2019. The hiring will be in the areas including networking, project management, accounting, multitasking, general management support along with office support services across entry to managerial levels besides few leadership positions, a release said here. Most of the hiring will be for positions in Mumbai and Pune. Innowave IT currently has 700 employees on its direct payrolls and another 25,000 on contract-based employment in India. The firm has grown beyond Maharashtra, its primary market, into, Assam, Odisha, UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. On the global front, the firm recently won a major order in Uganda and is seeing traction in both Africa and Middle East for its expertise. "The hiring will be spread across the year though we will initiate the process of identifying and shortlisting the candidates in the first quarter of 2019 ...
Housekeeping staff protest at CBI HQs for irregular payment of salary
The housekeeping staff at the CBI headquarters here on Tuesday protested, alleging that they were not getting regular salaries.Around 150 staff have been hired by a third party company and the payment has been allegedly delayed by them.The staff complained of irregular salary, adding that their salary for the present month is also due. The staff have been working here for the last seven to eight years.
BEST strike: Bombay HC seeks response from all parties
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday sought response from all the parties in connection with the ongoing indefinite strike by BEST employees here.The high court asked all the parties to decide about the ongoing BEST strike till 11 am on Wednesday and inform the court about their decision.The lawyer representing BEST also said that BEST is ready to give 10 step increments to employees which will be implemented from February 2019.Mumbai's civic transport, comprising a workforce of 32,000 people, has been demanding the merger of BEST budget with 'A' budget of BMC. They are also seeking resolution of the issue of employee service residences and recruitment. When the talks with the authorities failed, the employees resorted to the strike.In the wake of the ongoing strike, locals in Mumbai are forced to bear the brunt of higher fares as they now have to opt for a private taxi or an auto-rickshaw to commute. Moreover, rides to busy areas such as Churchgate, Lower Parel, BKC, Andheri, and ...
HC asks BEST workers' union to decide on withdrawal of strike
The Bombay High Court has directed the BEST workers' union to take a final decision on the withdrawal of its ongoing strike by Tuesday evening and inform the court on Wednesday. The direction came after the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) told a bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N M Jamdar that it was willing to implement the redressal measure suggested by a high-powered committee on granting an interim pay hike to its employees. The counsel for BEST, M P Rao, told the bench that the corporation was "open to implementing a 10-step increment" for its employees with effect from February this year. The increase, however, will be implemented subject to the fact that the strike was called off this (Tuesday) evening, Rao told the bench. As per the previous submissions made by the BEST workers' union and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the court, a 'one-step' increase in pay for BEST workers amounts to around Rs 330 per person per month. In ...
Job security irrespective of performance is govt jobs' attraction: Goyal
Job security irrespective of performance is the attraction of government jobs, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said Tuesday, adding that the sheer volume of those who apply for such jobs should not be seen as lack of other job opportunities in the country. Goyal and Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar were speaking at a CII workshop on jobs and livelihoods. They said the government has provided enough jobs in the last five years, however, data sources were unable to adequately capture this trend. Javadekar remarked that people who do not work out of choice cannot be considered 'unemployed'. Citing the example of railways where 15 million applications are received for a handful of posts, the railway minister said such data is often used to highlight high rate of unemployment. "The attraction and lure of government jobs in the traditional Indian context is extremely huge. People think if they get a government job, they are sorted for life....they are permanent .
Over 90% of Taiwan employees considering job change: Survey
More than 90 per cent of employees in Taiwan are considering seeking a new job after the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 5 this year, indicating low pay as a major reason, a survey released by Taiwan's online job bank Yes123 showed Monday.The rate of potential job-hoppers is the highest in 10 years, according to the survey. The estimated number of employed people in Taiwan is over 9 million.Among those who intend to change jobs, 55 per cent said it was due to being dissatisfied with salaries, followed by poor welfare provided by their companies, no chance of promotion, and having a bleak outlook for their companies.As many as 65 per cent of those said they had already begun to search for a new job. Nearly 85 per cent of the respondents said they were considering securing a job outside Taiwan with a higher pay.Yang Tsung-pin, spokesman for Yes123, said a labor shortage could loom if the brain drain continued on the island, impacting Taiwan's overall competitiveness.In ..
German airport security staff begin one-day strike
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Security staff at eight German airports went on strike on Tuesday in an escalating pay dispute that means up to 220,000 passengers could be affected by delays or cancellations, airport association ADV said.
250 lawmakers, activists write to PM raising concerns over MGNREGA fund crunch
Nearly 90 lawmakers, several prominent civil society members, activists and leaders of farmers' movements have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concerns over fund crunch in rural employment scheme MGNREGA. The letter, which has 250 signatories, urged the prime minister to work for strengthening of the scheme on a priority basis and "formally include it as part of the set of measures being considered to deal with the current rural and agrarian crisis". On January 1, over 99 per cent fund of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA scheme was reportedly exhausted, three months before the end of the financial year. "Despite repeated public statements by your government promising employment and job creation that will boost the country's growth, we are alarmed to note that the country's only employment guarantee is being systematically undermined," the letter read. "Illegal restrictions on its budget allocation, severe payment delays and low ...
Appropriate orders on Tuesday if BEST bus stir not resolved: HC
The striking BEST workers' union and the Maharashtra government Monday failed to reach an agreement before the Bombay High Court to end the stir. The high court Monday said it would pass appropriate orders on Tuesday on the 7-day-old BEST bus strike if the union and state authorities failed to end the deadlock. A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice NM Jamdar also said "things cannot continue as they are". The high court bench Monday directed the high power committee, constituted by the Maharashtra government last week to negotiate with the striking union, to submit a report in a sealed cover clarifying its views on some of the urgent demands of the union. The bench has been urging the union, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the state government and BEST undertaking to resolve issues in a "congenial environment" and ensure minimum inconvenience to the public. Over 32,000 employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) are on ...
BEST union not negotiating properly, violating court's order: Bombay HC
The Bombay High Court on Monday said the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) union is not negotiating properly with concerned authorities, thereby violating the court's orders.During a hearing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) lawyer informed the court that demands raised by the BEST workers, who are currently on strike, will lead to an additional annual financial burden of Rs 550 crore on the municipal body."The demands by the workers union are of an additional burden of around Rs 550 crore per year and the current losses of the BMC are at over Rs 1,000 crore. Also, the BEST undertaking has to purchase new buses to keep itself functional. So the demands by workers union can't be fulfilled," the BMC lawyer told the court."We have created a platform where the state government and BMC are ready to talk with the BEST union but they are not ready to initiate talks with us. They don't have respect for the committees formed by us," the BMC lawyer added.The BEST .
BEST employees' strike enters day 7, private cabs get costlier
There seems to be no end to woes of lakhs of people residing in Mumbai, as an indefinite strike called by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) entered the seventh day on Monday.Mumbai's civic transport, comprising a workforce of 32,000 people, have been demanding the merger of BEST budget with 'A' budget of BMC. They are also seeking resolution of the issue of employee service residences and recruitment. When the talks with the authorities failed, the employees resorted to the strike.Narrating his ordeal, Pramod Arjun Yadav, a conductor in BEST stated, "This strike is posing a lot of problems for us to run a household. The state government must intervene and find out a solution on the same. We are getting less salary than the average.""The administration is not paying our salaries on time. It because of the corruption. Some of us have not even received the refunds for our bills. We will keep sitting on strike until our demands are met," claimed another
Bangladesh garment workers clash with police as strikes roll on
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers churning out clothes for top global brands walked off the job Sunday and clashed with police as protests over low wages entered a second week. Police said water cannons and tear gas were fired to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital Dhaka. Bangladesh is dependant on garments stitched by millions of low-paid tailors on factory floors across the emerging South Asia economy of 165 million people. Roughly 80 per cent of its export earnings come from clothing sales abroad, with global retailers H&M, Primark, Walmart, Tesco and Aldi among the main buyers. The protests are the first major test for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since winning a fourth term in December 30 elections marred by violence, thousands of arrests and allegations of vote rigging and intimidation. Garment workers have been demanding a wage rise, closing factories in the past seven days and taking to the streets in ...
Bangladesh apparel exporters threaten to shut down factories
Bangladesh apparel garment owners have threatened to shut down thousands of factories if the labour unrest over disparity in their new wage structure in the country's key export sector continues.
SpaceX to lay off 10 percent of workforce
(Reuters) - Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX will reduce its workforce by about 10 percent of the company's more than 6,000 employees, it said on Friday.
Odisha anganwadi workers get pay hike as pre-poll sops
Odisha government Saturday announced a "special package" for 1.45 lakh anganwadi workers, helpers and mini-anganwadi workers, raising their monthly honorarium effective from October 2018 and increasing their disengagement years from 60 years to 62 years. Announcing the pre-poll sops for them, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the honorarium of anganwadi workers has been enhanced to Rs 7,500 from Rs 6,000 per month while the mini-anganwadi workers would get Rs 5,375 instead of Rs 4,125. Similarly, Patnaik said, the angwanwadi helpers will get Rs 3,750 per month against their earlier honorarium of Rs 3,000. "The special package will have an additional burden of Rs 73.39 crore per annum on the state government," he said. These categories of workers fall under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) of the Centre and their pay is shared, not equally, by both the the central and the state governments. The burden of this raise would entirely be borne by the state ...