Labour ministry to improve skills of unorganised workers

The manufacturing industry in India has a twin problem when it comes to industrial relations - fear and flexibility. The fear is because of pushback from aggressive unions over salary and discipline issues while the lack of flexibility in labour laws means they cannot fire workers, or even close down plants easily.

So the who's who of the Indian industry resorted to rapid fire at Gauri Kumar, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, at a CII National Council meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.   

What does the industry do about the unorganised sector? What about state governments who have restrictive labour practices? Is it time for a Planning Commission type approach to Labour? How does the industry employ many more workers but at a competitive cost? How do they handle unions on one hand and unruly factory inspectors on the other side?

Gauri Kumar had some answers, and some solutions, which she said reflected the BJP government's resolve of making it easier to do business in India. The ministry is trying to change the attitude of inspectors, she told industrialists. "You cannot go and inspect a factory at will," she said.

On October 16, the government announced a Labour Inspection Scheme aimed at bringing in transparency in inspection. Instead of human discretion, a "risk-based" algorithm will now pick manufacturing units for inspection. The inspector has to upload his report within 72 hours of the inspection on a portal.

"Inspection reports lapse if they are not uploaded in 72 hours. We are monitoring it on a daily basis," Kumar said. Based on this new automated system, the Ministry has assigned 13,000 inspections and around 10,000 inspection report has been uploaded on the site, thus far.

The government had also announced a Shram Suvidha Portal, which makes filing annual labour returns online easy for about six lakh units.    

The ministry does have difficulties when it comes to handing unions, the secretary acknowledged but added that  there is a change in the tune and tenor of the unions for the better.

The government, she said, is working on improving the skills and certification of unorganised workers. "Our first priority is construction workers. We are looking at last mile skills development," Kumar said.

The government is also keen on improving the quality of vocational training. "The Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) have become a last choice for people. We are trying to re-establish its brand equity," the secretary said. The vocational training system under ITIs is mandated to supply skilled manpower to the manufacturing industry. There are 11,500 ITIs with 16 lakh seats in the country.

Other pieces to the government's employability agenda is the Apprenticeship Scheme, which the government recently amended, and a National Career Portal. The number of apprentice currently is dismal - only 2.9 lakh.

The government is keen on touching 20 lakh apprentice over the next few years on the back of efforts such as doubling of  their stipend. The National Career Portal will be launched in March next year. That would be a place for the industry and prospective employees to do some match making.

"We are trying to change people's thinking," Kumar said. "It is now a different ministry."