The forthcoming Indian Labour Conference will make room to discuss contractualisation and issues pertaining to migrant labour. The decision to incorporate these issues in the ILC was taken in the 42nd Session of the Standing Labour Committee (SLC), which concluded on 13 December 2007, in New Delhi. The ILC will have the issue of the Role of Social Partners in Appropriate Skill Development for Employability on its agenda.

The 42nd Session of the SLC was attended by state Labour Ministers, representatives of Central Trade Unions, employers and delegates from state governments and central ministries/departments.

Presiding over the meeting, the Minister for Labour, Oscar Fernandes, in his address, called upon Corporate India to be a partner in making a more humane and just society. He emphasised that the country needs a new partnership for inclusive growth and that Industry should be proactive in offering employment to the less privileged, at all levels of the job ladder. He stressed that the employer and employee have to work in tandem to achieve the common objective of prosperity and that Industry should consider investing in people and their skills.

The SLC saw heated discussions on the issue of contract labour. Gurudas Dasgupta, the general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, vehemently opposed the ongoing trend of engaging more and more workers on a contract basis since it formed the basis for the ruthless strategy of profit maximisation. “The situation becomes more complex and serious, as these workers are more vulnerable and less organised compared to any other segment of the workforce,” he said. According to him, the need of the hour was to devise effective measures to put an end to the exploitation meted out against contract labourers.

Tapan Sen, Secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, informed the participants that the violations in the matter of contract labour are often under-reported because the information is gathered primarily through the data provided by the employers, who often are party to such violations.

P.K. Gurudasan, Labour Minister, Government of Kerala, opined that contractualisation of work need not be promoted because it essentially leads to intensive exploitation of workers. He suggested that there is a desirability to extend the coverage of the Contract Labour Act to all establishments.

Referring to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, Oscar Fernandes said that while trade unions have demanded that the Act should be amended to provide for automatic absorption of contract labour, the employers` organisations are vehemently opposed to it on the grounds that such a step would lead to capital-intensive measures such as mechanisation and automation, and would result in a fall in employment. He said that we have received requests from both the workers` and the employers` organisations for further discussion on contractualisation of labour. This will be taken up in the forthcoming ILC.

Highlighting the importance of social dialogue amongst tripartite constituents in shaping and influencing labour policy in the country in the past six decades, Shri Fernandes said that industrial relations are nothing more or nothing less than human relations and hence the need for bipartite and tripartite dialogues to ensure inclusive growth to provide a human face to development. He reiterated the government`s firm commitment to strengthening the spirit of social dialogue through the collective wisdom to protect the interests of labour and capital.