Page 89 - Labor

Protesting NDMC sanitation workers dump garbage outside prominent buildings

Contractual sanitation workers of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), on a protest demanding regularisation of jobs and better wages, dumped garbage outside prominent buildings such as Shastri Bhavan and Rail Bhavan in Lutyens' Delhi today. "We have dumped the garbage so that attention is paid to our demands," a protesting sanitation worker said. Shastri Bhavan houses the offices of various ministries such as HRD Ministry and Women and Child Development Ministry. The protesting workers also dumped garbage outside NDMC's Convention Centre. Devendra, another protesting sanitation worker, said, "I have been working with NDMC for 15 years now. My job has neither been regularised nor my wages have been increased." Garbage dumps affected traffic in some areas. "Poor workers spilling the garbage on road in NDMC area, traffic getting choked. Just near RK Ashram metro towards Gole Market. Entire stretch with stench. Why poor need to agitate under a Rich NDMC?" a Twitter user posted. NDMC ..

Himachal launches self-employment scheme

The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to draft notification of the Mukhyamantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana to promote self-employment opportunities for the youth by encouraging entrepreneurship.

The next frontier in workplace wellness: financial health

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Study after study shows that money stress can be as bad for workplace productivity as back pain.

Sanitation workers strike: Hry govt sets up committee to hold

In a bid to end the fortnight-long strike of the sanitation workers in support of their demands, the Haryana government today set up a committee under the chairmanship of Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain. The committee would hold meetings with leaders of the striking Safai Karamcharis and work out on an agreement on their demands. Besides Jain, the committee would comprise Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Krishan Kumar Bedi, and Minister of State for Cooperation, Manish Grover, as members. The committee and a team of officers concerned would hold a meeting with the leaders of employees and work out an agreement on all issues so that the strike by sanitation workers could be called off at the earliest, Bedi said here today. Notably, garbage has piled up at several places across the state as the standoff between the striking employees and government continued. The talks between the state government and the representatives of the striking employees on past two

Workplace automation in India to double in next 3 yrs: Report

Workplace automation, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, is expected to double in India in next 3 years, but only a few companies and HR functions are fully prepared to address this organisational change, says a survey. According to a survey by Willis Towers Watson, companies in India expect the use of automation in the workplace to increase from the current 14 per cent to 27 per cent in three years, higher than the global and APAC average. Contrary to the traditional outlook where automation was believed to replace humans to minimise costs, the study noted that more than half the companies believe that automation will augment human performance and create new work, not replace it. "The fact of the matter is that the future of work is already here, whether organisations realise it or not," said Sambhav Rakyan, Head of Talent and Rewards, Willis Towers Watson India. As per the survey, very few companies and HR functions are fully prepared to address the ...

US lawmaker pushes for lifting country cap on Green card

Arguing the case of tens of thousands of Indian professionals waiting for their permanent legal residency, a top American lawmaker has called for lifting country-cap on Green Card, saying the existing system creates a power imbalance between employer and employee. Senator Orrin Hatch, president of Pro Tempore of the US Senate and Chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, said the Green Card backlog was driven in part by the American laws that cap the number of employment-based green cards that can be issued each year to a given country. This means that individuals from small countries with relatively few emigrants to the US face relatively short green card delays, while individuals from large countries like India and China face decades-long delays, he said at an event hosted by Compete America yesterday. "There is no good reason to force a worker from a large country to wait longer to obtain a green card simply because he or she happens to come from a large country. We ..

Workers hit McDonald's with new sexual harassment claims

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ten women who work at McDonald's restaurants in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and six other cities have filed sexual harassment complaints in the past few days with the federal government against the company and its franchisees, which they said ignored or retaliated against them for such complaints.

Companies win big at U.S. top court on worker class-action curbs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to the rights of workers on Monday by allowing companies to require them to sign away their ability to bring class-action claims against management, agreements already in place for about 25 million employees.

West Bengal CM lauds civic volunteers, announces pay hike

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today hailed the role of over one lakh civic volunteers working in the state, and announced a hike of Rs 3,000 for them from October. The CM also said that the volunteers would be roped in for the posts of home guards, and a programme would soon be initiated to train them for the posts of police constables. "The civic volunteers in our state undertake critical jobs and are doing a remarkable job. And to ensure a secure future for them, we have decided to hike their remuneration by Rs 3,000...from October 1," Banerjee said at the Bangla Bibhushan Award distribution ceremony here. She also announced a hike for both the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) workers from the same date. "We had increased the salary of ASHA workers by Rs 500 a few months back. We are paying Rs 2,000 to them now other than the incentives they get. From October 1, they will get Rs 3,000," Banerjee ...

SC asks Kerala HC to expeditiously decide issue of nurses' wages

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Kerala High Court's interim order holding that the state government is entitled to raise minimum wages of nurses working in hospitals.

Strong labour relations key to reducing inequality and meeting challenges of a changing world of work - OECD & ILO

Building Trust in a Changing World of Work finds that trade union membership is declining in a majority of countries, while in several emerging economies large shares of the workforce are still in the informal economy. The share of employees whose job conditions and pay are regulated by collective bargaining varies greatly across sectors and countries, from less than 10% in Turkey to over 90% in Sweden. Coverage of collective bargaining have also seen a marked decline in many countries over the last decades, although in some countries more workers are covered today thanks to decisive policy reforms.

Cos increasing variable pay to retain, attract talents: Experts

Companies are offering 10-25 per cent increase in variable pay as incentive to retain and attract talents, especially in the IT, FMCG, e-commerce, BFSI and telecom sectors, according to experts. "We see an increase ranging from 10-25 per cent during the last 2-3 years. Today for some companies, the variable component is nearly 25 per cent of the fixed salary for employees at junior-mid level," TeamLease Services Head of North Business Mayur Saraswat told PTI here. This growth in variable component reflects 10-20 per cent on the gross salary, he added. Companies in sectors like IT, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS), FMCG, e-commerce, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and Telecom are increasing variable pay component as a proportion of employee salary to incentivise performance. "Historically, companies were used to the concept of having fixed pay. But now, with markets getting matured and complex with competition, companies believe talent is one of the key ..

Unidentified men steal SUV from driver in south Delhi

A group of men allegedly held a 32-year-old driver captive and then fled with his employer's SUV, police said today. The incident was reported on May 17. The driver had dropped his employer for a meeting at a mall in Vasant Kunj. He was waiting on the Nelson Mandela Marg in his employer's SUV when a group of men came and overpowered him. They thrashed him, forced him to sit in the backseat and started driving the Fortuner car, they added. Later, they dumped him near Palam after taking his cell phone and ATM card, the police said. The driver informed the police using a passerby's phone. A case was registered in the matter.

Delay in MGNREGA wages, compensation unacceptable: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre, in consultation with states, to prepare an "urgent time bound mandatory programme" to make the payment of wages and compensation to the workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Delay in payment of MGNREGA wages not accepted: SC

Any delay in paying the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is "simply not acceptable" and red-tape cannot be "pedalled" as an excuse to deny payment to the workers, the Supreme Court said today. The court, while noting that the Centre has admitted delay in payment of wages, said the payments to the workers must be transferred to them immediately, failing which the prescribed compensation would have to be paid. The top court said that under the Act, a worker was entitled to get his or her due wages within a fortnight of completion of work and if there was any administrative inefficiency or laxity, it was entirely for the state governments and the Ministry of Rural Development to sort out the problem. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and N V Ramana said the burden of compliance of provisions of the Act was on the state governments, Union Territory administrations and the Centre and "one entity cannot pass on the burden to another or vice ..

Bharat Heavy Electricals announces change in directorate

With effect from 18 May 2018

Day-NULM - New Initiatives Likely to Reduce Vulnerability and Improve Working Conditions for the Urban Poor

While complimenting the National Institute of Urban Affairs for organizing this event, the Minister said that focusing on waste pickers, street vendors, brick-kiln and home based workers which together form the largest proportion of informal workers, this workshop intends to address informality with all its diversity and identify the barriers and opportunities in informal 'place of work' with a focus on women. The challenges and innovations; the role of city planning and the question of 'formalisation' will be deliberated. Finally, a roadmap shaping the future of 'work in India' will be worked out exploring the role of National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) and National Missions in widening employment opportunities and creating appropriate policies for the urban informal workforce.

Municipal workers decide go on indefinite strike

After the talks with the state government remained inconclusive, municipal workers in Haryana today decided to continue their strike for an indefinite period. "The government is not sincere on resolving the issue. They have gone back on their own promises and failed to fulfill our demands. We are compelled and have decided to go on an indefinite strike now," Haryana Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh president Naresh Shastri said after meeting union leaders in Rohtak today. The major demands of the employees include regularisation of the contractual employees, minimum salary of Rs 15,000 per month for 'safai karamcharis', implementation of cashless medical facilities for contractual employees, increasing allowances of both permanent and contractual employees, risk allowance and better safety equipment for those engaged in cleaning sewers. Yesterday, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had claimed that a consensus had been reached on some demands of sanitation workers. Meanwhile, garbage has

AirAsia India increases workforce to 2,000

AirAsia India today said it has increased its workforce to 2,000, as the no-frills carrier is set to spread its wings overseas from later this year. Talent recruitment has been one of the key focus areas for the airline since last year, and it will continue to grow to gear up for rapid expansion, AirAsia India said in a statement today. The Bengaluru-based airline's former managing director and chief executive officer, Amar Abrol, had earlier said that the carrier was aiming a three-fold rise in headcount by 2020. "AirAsia India is proud to achieve another milestone as its employee headcount reaches the 2,000 mark. The airline increased its headcount significantly in the last one year and will continue to grow to gear up for expansion," it said. AirAsia India, a 51:49 joint venture between the Tata group and Malaysian carrier AirAsia, began its operations in June 2014, and currently flies to 20 domestic destinations, with a fleet of 18 Airbus A320 planes. "The airline has

International Rail Expo inaugurated

The maiden International Rail Coach Expo, that will display coaches and train sets by reputed rail car and equipment manufacturers, was inaugurated here today. Organised by leading Public Sector Unit rail coach maker Integral Coach Factory,in coordination with CII and RITES Ltd, the three-day expo will also showcase their technology and products. About 100 participants from over 10 countries will participate in the expo, where seminars and conferences will also be held. The expo is expected to be a platform to bring different suppliers under one roof and create synergy for the Union government's ambitious "Make in India" initiative. Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit, in his address at the inauguration, welcomed the organising of such an expo and lauded the Indian Railways. "The Railways by themselves are great providers of employment. Through the spin-off effects of indigenisation of manufacturing for the Indian Railways in the private sector, particularly among the