The labour department should promote the advisory role of its inspection staff so that they may facilitate compliance with labour laws and labour standards in industrial sector.
This was the recommendation of one of two working groups formed during a workshop on 'Labour Inspection Policy 2006' (LIP). The workshop was part of a consultative process initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Manpower in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) to collect views of stakeholders before finalising the draft document of the policy.
The working group on Integrated Inspection, Labour Extension & Capacity Building in its recommendations called for reviewing the process of consolidation of labour laws in the light of requirements of the new approaches to inspection.
It said that the existing labour laws only need to be fine-tuned according to the present requirements. Any major revisions should be avoided as it may lead to cause more complications.
The Integrated Inspection System (IIS) should be in line with our national and international commitments on labour standards. The linkage between social compliance /social audit / social standards and labour legislation needs to be strengthened through awareness and capacity building.
ROLE OF IRI: It said that the Industrial Relations Institute (IRI) could play a pivotal role in capacity building and training of social partners. The IIS should be inclusive of inspection for employment conditions and apprenticeship training, apart from ensuring that it is consistent with the proposal of one-window operation for contributions of EOBI + ESSI.
The group also recommends that workers in the informal sector need to be organised to take benefit from the labour extension services proposed in LIP. The labour extension services would help promote the registration of brick kilns in Punjab. The induction of females in labour inspection and labour extension services should be encouraged through information dissemination.
SUGGESTIONS: Working group on Registration, Classification and Involvement of Private Sector and Capacity Building suggested as follows:
Procedure and process of registration may be simplified, unified & publicised amongst all stakeholders.
Registration should be linked with welfare incentives and in the case of default, the concerned employer should be held responsible for grant/payment of all such benefits. Agriculture and contract workers may also be provided labour protection services through expanded registration.
Unionism may be promoted at the work places as a measure, facilitating the registration process. Intra-agency consultation/co-operation for promoting registration and extending labour protection services may be encouraged.
Legislative framework may be made compulsory for registration of all enterprises at the risk of punitive action. Classification of enterprises may be done on the basis of risk hazards and through tripartite arrangements.
Private sector expertise may be involved only in supportive role and the main functions of registration and labour protection may be done on the tripartite basis.
Labour inspectorates may be refurbished in men and material in order to enable them to efficiently cover their area of responsibility, enhance competency and extend labour protection/inspection services to informal sector.
Labour offices may be established on need basis, giving preference to areas having cluster of industries.
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