Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya firm on labour reforms

Mumbai: The government is committed to go ahead with further labour law reforms, said Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday even as trade unions oppose any such measure.

“The government is totally committed to reform the labour sector. We need to bring in changes in the labour laws in a manner that they are in the interest of all the stakeholders — the industry, employer and employees,” he said, who recently took charge as the labour and employment minister, told reporters. It may be recalled that all central trade unions had called for a nationwide protest on December 5 to protest against the labour reforms initiated by the Modi government.

There are around five laws such as the Trade Union Act and the Compensation Act which need to be in sync with the current times and “certain laws need to be looked at in a new light”, he said on the sidelines of the 3rd India-Australia Skills Summit.

Acceding to the industry’s demand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on October 16 unveiled a string of labour reforms, including measures to end the inspector raj. He dedicated a number of schemes under Shramev Jayate programme which includes portability through universal account number for employee provident fund, etc.