The Hindu : `New labour laws being planned'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 15, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

`New labour laws being planned'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM DEC. 14. The Central Government was planning to bring a new labour law to cater to be the new business environment, the Union Minister for Labour, Sahib Singh Verma, said here on Saturday.

Inaugurating the Human Resources Conclave organised by the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of the National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) here and its new building, the Minister said that the country should be able to design and develop appropriate framework for employee-employer relationship in the changed environment.

Dr. Verma noted that business outsourcing had become the order of the day. Because of the strength of country's culture and heritage, it would be able to adapt to these changes brought about by such practices.

``The outsourcing business should be one which should be enabling our people to grab job opportunities while they were in their own country. At the same time, we should be able to provide the required social and economic security and safety for the people who are used by other organisations and who are not directly their employers.''

He noted that the country had about 50 labour laws. "Our legal system and the statutes are all framed on the framework in which we have been operating for the last so many decades. We were looking at long-term associations of employers and employees and had designed mechanism to settle their disputes and also to protect the rights of the workers. The changing scenario has brought in many new dimensions to the employer-employee relations and calls for a re-look into the way in which out statutes and the various machineries under the statutes were functioning in this country.'' He said that the percentage of skilled labour in the country was only 10 per cent while it was 70 to 80 per cent in developed countries like Germany. Today's businesses were dependent on fine skills and the people needed to acquire them. The changes taking place in society called for professional help to prepare employees at all levels to equip themselves with the required competency for carrying out their functions.

The State Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran, who presided, said that globalisation had affected the labour the most. However, the country should be able to take benefit from the emerging opportunities such as business outsourcing by developed countries.

The former managing director of the Maruti Udyog Limited, R. S. S. L. N. Bhaskarudu, delivered the keynote address on business outsourcing. The Labour Secretary, Elias George, released a souvenir.

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