Recommendations of Majithia Wage Board for Newspaper Employees Notified

Ministry of Labour & Employment

Recommendations of Majithia Wage Board for Newspaper Employees Notified

2.54 crore families issued smart cards for health insurance to cover 9.0 crore persons

68, 158 employees covered under ESI

National Floor Level Minimum Wage revised to Rs. 115
Know your claim status” on internet in EPFO introduced
9404 ITIs with seating capacity of around 13.21 lakh
Year  End Review-Ministry of Labour & Employment

Following are the salient features of the initiatives taken by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment during the year 2011:

1. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)

RSBY is a flagship programme of the Government that provides health insurance to unorganized workers to avail smart card based cashless hospitalization facilities upto Rs.30,000/-. Till 30.11.2011, more than 2.54 crore families have been issued smart cards, providing health insurance cover to around 9.0 crore persons. Around 20 lakh persons have availed benefits under this scheme. In view of the success of the scheme, RSBY has now been extended to the additional categories of workers, viz. Building and other construction workers registered with the welfare boards; Street vendors; Licensed railway porters and vendors; MGNREGA workers who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding year; Domestic workers; and Beedi Workers. The scheme is proposed to be further extended in a phased manner to other segments of unorganized workers.

2. Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)

The ESIC administers the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 for providing health care and cash benefit payments in case of sickness, maternity and employment injury. Several new initiatives have been taken by ESIC during last two years. Five new hospitals in Gurgaon, Manesar, Bhiwadi, Baddi and Super Specialty Hospital, Hyderabad have been inaugurated and commissioned. ESIC Dental College, Rohini has also been commissioned. Permissions granted for starting PG Courses at 6 PGIMSRs with 57 seats at Delhi, Chennai, Andheri (Mumbai), Parel (Mumbai), Joka (West Bengal) and Bangalore. Seven New Hospitals have been approved by ESI Corporation. Recruitment of 94 teaching faculty, 268 Specialists and 291 Medical Officers has been done during the year 2010-2011. Patients can now avail super specialty treatment from any of the networked/tie up hospitals of ESIC (more than 700 in number) as per his choice anywhere in the country.

The scheme has been extended to 68 new areas in 2010-11 covering 1.14 lakh additional employees during 2010-2011 and to 33 new areas covering 68,158 employe`es during 2011-12 (upto 06.07.2011). The threshold limit for coverage of factories has been reduced to 10 or more persons. The eligibility conditions for availing the unemployment allowance under Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan

Yojana relaxed from 5 years to 3 years. The duration of benefit enhanced from 6 months to 12 months. A skill upgradation scheme introduced for the unemployed insured persons who undergo Vocational Training in Centres run by Government to upgrade their skills. ESIC institutions are being upgraded under Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s IT Project “Panchdeep” and all ESI institutions are being networked under this Project.

3. Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)

The EPFO administers the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 to provide social security and timely monetary assistance to industrial employees and their families when they are in distress.  Upto 2010-2011, total 6.61 lakhs establishments have been covered with total membership of 617.79 Lakhs. On 15.01.2011, the EPF has been extended to contract workers in Municipalities / Municipal corporations. This is expected to benefit 6 lakh additional workers. On 17.03.2011, the Government notified the rate of interest for the year 2010-11 at 9.5% based on surplus identified. This interest is highest ever during the last five financial years. On 08.01.2011, the Government notified, assurance benefits payable to family of deceased employees equal to 20 times the monthly average wages drawn in preceding 12 months subject to a maximum of Rs.1.30 lakh.

IT related initiatives by EPFO:     National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) was launched in June, 2010 for refund of EPF claims in all EPF offices and credit of benefit amount. Since then all offices of EPFO have been made NEFT enabled. With effect from July, 2010, SMS services have been launched for sending alerts to EPF subscribers on the status of their claims and alert services for remittances of contributions to employers. With effect from February 2011, “know your claim status” on internet has been introduced to allow members to know the status of claims deposited in the office.

4.Expansion of Training Infrastructure:

ITIs are growing with an average rate of 10% every year during last five years.  At present there are 9404 ITIs with seating capacity of around 13.21 lakh . In Government Sector, there are 2244 ITIs with seating capacity of 4.69 lakh and in Private Sector, total ITIs are 7160 with seating capacity of  8.62 lakh.

The  Central Government, with the help of State Governments, has launched two major Schemes for upgradation of all the existing Government Industrial Training Institutes in the country.  Under the first Scheme, 500 ITIs are being upgraded. Out of which 100 ITIs have been upgraded into Centres of Excellence through domestic funding at a cost of Rs 160 crore and other 400 ITIs are being upgraded under the Vocational Training Improvement Project assisted by World Bank at a cost of about Rs 1581 crore.

The second Scheme is  for upgradation of the remaining 1396 Government ITIs in PPP mode at a total cost of about  Rs. 3550 crore .   We have been able to associate Industry Partners in the process of upgradation of  1107 Govt ITIs, so far covered under the scheme.  The Central Government has released around Rs.3713 crores to State Govts for upgrading  ITIs under above said two Schemes so as to bring out qualitative changes in the ITIs.

Skill Development Initiative (SDI) Scheme: The scheme is based on Modular Employable Skills (MES) framework to provide vocational training for early school leavers and existing workers, especially in the unorganized sector to improve their employability. Since its inception, 6454 Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) have been registered to provide training under the Scheme adopting flexible delivery mechanism (part time, weekend, full time, onsite/offsite) to suit needs of various target groups. 1260 demand driven short term training course based on Modular Employable Skills (MES) were developed. During last two years, 10.12 lakh persons have been trained / tested and cumulatively 11.55 lakh persons trained/tested during last four years. 36 Assessing Bodies have been empanelled to conduct assessment all over the country.

A new scheme on ‘Enhancing Skill Development in North-East States and Sikkim’ has been approved in March, 2011 with an outlay of Rs.57.39 crore and an amount of Rs.12.80 crore has been released to the State Governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland & Sikkim. A scheme on ‘Skill Development in 34 districts affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE)’ with an outlay of Rs.232.95 crore for setting up of ITIs and SDCs has been approved and the concerned State Governments have been asked to submit their proposals. A scheme titled ‘Kaushal Vikas Yojana’ for setting up of 1500 ITIs and 5000 SDCs in Public Private Partnership in unserviced blocks has also been prepared and is under process of approval. A Scheme for setting up of 15 Advanced Training Institutes (ATIs) and 12 Regional Vocational Training Institutes (RVTIs) is under process of approval.

20 Vocational Rehabilitation Centres for Handicapped (VRCs) are run across the country to cater to the economic rehabilitation of different categories of handicapped persons. The main objective of these Centres is to evaluate the residual capacities of persons with disabilities, impart vocational training and extend them vocational rehabilitation assistance. Out of total intake of more than 60,000 candidates during 2009-10 and 2010-11, around 23,000 have been rehabilitated. Further, 23 Coaching-cum-Guidance Centres for SCs/STs in the country, have been set up for the benefit of schedule castes and scheduled tribes. These centres provide Vocational Guidance/Career Counseling services/ training to the educated SC/ST job seekers in order to enhance their employability. About 1 lakh persons have benefited during 2009-10 and 2010-11.

5. Child Labour and the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)

In pursuance of Government commitment to eliminate child labour in hazardous areas, the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme has been extended to cover 271 districts (which includes 21 districts under INDUS Project).The project provides for withdrawal of child labour from work and admitting them into special schools where they are provided with bridging education, vocational training, mid-day meal, stipend, health care facilities etc. About 2,28,000 children from special schools of NCLP have been mainstreamed into the formal education system during 2009-10 to 2010-11. As on June, 2011, the total mainstreaming figure is 8.52 lakh, since the inception of NCLP scheme.  About 75,000 children are enrolled in the special schools under NCLP. The total enrollment of children in NCLP School as on date is 3.39 lakh approximately. The honorarium to the staff / teacher of NCLP schools and Project Societies has been enhanced substantially.

6. Occupational Safety and Health

Steps have been taken to re-organize and strengthen the Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) with creation of three posts of Deputy Director General of Mines Safety, two new zones at Bangaluru and Udaipur and six new regions at Raigarh, Gwalior, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Surat and Bangaluru. The Government declared the National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at work place on 20th February, 2009 and circulated to all Central Government Ministries/ Departments and State Governments.

7. Industrial Relations

The overall industrial relations climate remained peaceful and cordial on account of pro-active role played by the Ministry of Labour & Employment in bringing together the stake-holders in a dialogue process, greater awareness among Management as well as labour and efforts by the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) to strengthen the conciliation mechanism. During 2010-11 as many as 538 instances of threatened strikes were reported out of which in 526 cases the strikes were averted due to timely and effective intervention, giving a success rate of 98%.

8. Labour Education

During 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, CBWE conducted 16,784 training programmes for 5,85,486 workers. Out of these, 5693 programmes were conducted for 1,41,779 workers in Organized sector, 6862 programmes for 2,71,623 workers in Unorganized sector while 4229 programmes for 1,72,084 workers in Rural sector. Around 2 lakh workers were sensitized on Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Skill Development Initiative Scheme (SDIS). Programmes were also conducted for awareness generation about the welfare of social security scheme for construction workers and MGNREGA programme and women empowerment.

9. Labour Statistics

The Labour Bureau has conducted 12 Quarterly Quick Employment Survey to assess the impact on economic slowdown on employment in India relating  to important sectors such as textiles, leather, automobiles, gems & jewellery, IT/BPO, handloom/ powerloom etc. The overall estimated employment for these sectors since July, 2009 has experienced a net addition of 23.58 lakh workers. The first ever Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey was conducted by the Labour Bureau for the reference period 2009-10.  The second survey in the series is on the field.

10. Protection of Real Wages

The Government took care to protect the real wages of workers under Section 4 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA) on minimum wages in the Central Sphere is being revised twice a year effective 1st April and    1st October depending on the rise in Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers.

National Floor Level Minimum Wage:     In order to have a uniform wage structure and to reduce the disparity in minimum wages across the country, the National Floor Level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) has been revised from time to time primarily taking into account the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. The NFLMW which was fixed at Rs.80/- on 01.09.2007 was revised to Rs.100/- on 01.11.2009 and Rs.115/- on 01.04.2011. The National Floor Level Minimum Wage applies to all employments including agriculture. This method has helped in reducing disparity among different rates of minimum wages to a great extent. Since the NFLMW is a non-statutory measure, the State Governments have been requested to fix/revise minimum wages in such a way that in none of the scheduled employments the minimum wage is less than NFLMW.

Wage Boards:  The Majithia Wage Boards for Newspaper Employees submitted their report on 31st December, 2010. The recommendations of the Wage Board for revision of salaries of journalists and non-journalists in newspaper establishments and news agencies as accepted by the Government have been notified on 11.11.2011.

PIB

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great injustice has been to lower cadres of Ministerial and stenographers. As per 6th CPC they are qualified class IV employees and bear no value to them. Kindly give lift to poor carders and do justice i.e, Jr.Stenograhers and Jr.Clerks by discussing in the next NAC.

Regards,

Madan
Kashinath Matale said…
Dear Sir regarding implementation of recommendations of Majithia Wage Board for newspaper and news agencies employees, employers and management of newspaper and news agency oppose the wage board by challenging the same in Supreme Court. We the employees waiting since last 12 years for wage revision. due to the 6th pay Commission inflation is rising daily and touching the sky. This is injustice to the newspaper employees. Now govt duty to implement the Majithia Wage Board as earlier.

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