Unorganised labour may get EPF, ESI

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour will recommend to the Union Ministry of Labour to frame laws so as to bring workers of the unorganised sector in the country under the social security net.

Disclosing this at a press conference in Gangtok on Monday, committee's Chairman S Sudhakar Reddy said it will also request the ministry to extend these laws to all the states in the country, including Sikkim.

Bringing casual labourers under the social security net implies extending to them the benefits of labour welfare schemes, including the Employees Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance schemes, Reddy explained.

The decision to make this recommendation is based on the outcome of the committee's discussions with the casual labourers working in the Border Road Organisation projects in Sikkim and the tea gardens of the Dooars region in North Bengal, he added.

Favouring extention of various central acts of labour welfare such as Factories Act and Industrial Disputes Act to Sikkim, Reddy said he had asked the state government to have an act to register and recognise trade unions as there was no such law in the state at present.

"The total absence of trade unions in a democracy is not a healthy sign. It might give rise to naxalite activities," he warned.