FM holds '5th Pre-Budget Consultation' meet with representatives of various Trade Unions & Labour Organisations

New Delhi, Dec 19 (KNN) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held her '5th Pre-Budget Consultation' with the representatives of various Trade Unions and Labour Organizations here on Thursday in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21.

The main motive of the meeting was to seek views and suggestions regarding labour and employment issues, skilling, re-skilling, up-skilling of existing labour force, quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were discussed.

Apart from other industry bodies, Federation of Indian Micro & Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) too attended the meeting to highlight key issues and demands.

During the meeting, representatives of Trade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding job creation, labour concerns and quality of employment issues.

The participants also aired their concerns about provision of social security to labour besides skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of existing labour force. They also emphasised quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers in detail besides the need for streamlining various schemes to have better results.

Apart from these, experts and representatives from various Trade Unions (TUs) and Labour Organisations gave suggestions related to skill development in labour intensive areas, alignment of  skill development initiatives with cluster developments, creation of dedicated fund for skill enhancement,  allocation of more funds to MGNREGA scheme, increase of number of days of work under MGNREGA,  legislation for various welfare schemes for permanent benefits, profiling job according to skill-sets, separate fund for revival of job creation via Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), increase in social sector spending, unorganized sector workers’ benefits including land less farm labourers , strengthening of tripartite & bipartite mechanisms, consultations with TUs for finalising Code on Safety , Industrial Relations & Social Security.

The meeting also saw Anurag Singh, Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs; Rajeev Kumar, Finance Secretary; Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DEA; Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT; KV Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser; Heeralal Samariya, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment; H. Srinivas, DG, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and other senior officials of Ministry of Finance.

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