The Union Minister for Mines, Steel and labour and Employment, Narendra Singh Tomar and the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman held a press conference on labour and industry issues in Delhi recently.
The Ministry of labour and Employment is administering 44 labour laws. These laws are enforced by central and state enforcement agencies in their respective spheres. The multiplicity of labour laws and complexities in compliance have been a matter of concern for a long time. There have been requests for ensuring simplification of formats, ease of compliance, effectiveness of inspections and speedy redressal of grievances.
In order to address these concerns, Ministry of labour and Employment is developing a single unified labour portal for online registration of units, submission of annual returns, reporting of inspections, and redressal of grievances.
The pilot project is being operationalised in four organisations in Central Sphere namely the Chief labour Commissioner (Central) organisation, the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC),
Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Directorate General of Mines Safety covering 16 labour laws to start with. The web portal is being developed and maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Each employer/establishment will be allotted a Unique labour Identification Number (Shram Pehchan Sankhya) for online registration on this integrated web portal. Complete information of all 11 lakh units for these organisations is being collected, digitised and de-duplicated. It is proposed to allot lIN to all these unique units. The annual return format is being harmonised and simplified with amendments to respective rules. With the given UN number, the employer will be prompted about the applicable acts. This will be a step forward in promoting the ease of doing business.
The web portal will also provide for online Grievance Redressal System integrated with Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) portal.
The web portal will contribute proactively to achieve the objective of compliance of labour regulations and harmonising compliance across labour acts/organisations.
labour Inspection Scheme
About 1,75,000 inspections are carried out annually by four central agencies in the central sphere. So far these units were selected locally without any specific criteria. A computerised inspection scheme has been designed with the objective of enhancing effectiveness of labour inspections and ensuring transparency. It also aims to ensure focussed inspections based on objective criteria.
The scheme will be operative in the central sphere covering four organisations namely Chief labour Commissioner (Central) organisation, the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS).
A Central Analysis and Inspection Unit will be set up in each of the four organisations to analyse the complaints centrally according to data and evidence. The inspection report formats of EPFO, ESIC, ClC(C) and DGMS have been simplified with online inspection schemes.
The scheme has also been linked to web portal for online reporting of harmonised inspection report by labour inspector/inspecting officer.