Context :
3.8
lakh contract workers register on Railways’Shramik Kalyan portal / BL –
12 March 2921
Extract :
Ø Indian Railways’ Shramik Kalyan e-application,
which was developed and launched on October 1, 2018, has seen registration by
15,812 contractors and 3,81,831 contract workers so far, an official release
said on Thursday.
Ø The e-application ensures
compliance with the provisions of
the Minimum Wages Act
Ø The contractors are required to regularly
upload WAGE PAYMENT DATA
on to the e-application
Ø This helps the Railways , as the principal
employer, to keep an eye over wages
disbursed by contractors to workers
Ø The contractor has to CREATE PROFILE of each CONTRACT WORKER…and update the WAGES provided to him/her on REGULAR BASIS
Ø There are checks in the portal to ensure that WAGES
paid by the contractors conform with the MINIMUM WAGES fixed by the Government
Ø Railway Authorities, before passing the
contractors’ bills, have to check whether CONTRACTOR
WORKERS WAGES DATA have been
uploaded by the contractor or not. For ensuring the compliance, necessary
changes have also been made in the CONTRACT CONDITIONS
Ø Provision is available in the e-application to generate an IDENTITY ( Card / Number ) for the CONTRACT WORKER and
also send TEXT MESSAGES from time to time, about WAGES PAID, and CONTRIBUTION
made to the EMPLOYERS PROVIDENT FUND ( EPF ) and Employee State Insurance
Corporation ( ESIC )
===================================================
HOW MUCH TIME ?
For the Punjab Mandi Board
> little
more than 3 YEARS (
Refer :
MAD goes
to Mandi / 02
Jan 2020 )
For the Indian Railways
>
About 5
years ( as can be inferred from above-mentioned news )
BUT SINCE WHEN ?
Since sending following E Mailed suggestion to our
Cabinet Minsters :
Ø From BAD
to MAD …………………………[ 01
June 2016 ]
WHAT WAS YOUR
SUGGESTION ?
To replace BAD ( Biometric Attendance Devices ) with
MAD ( Mobile-based Attendance Devices )
HOW WAS THIS “ MAD “ TO WORK ?
# All smart phones to evolve
as Bio-metric Attendance Devices , with built-in
Bio-metric Recorders , GPS , a mobile
attendance App ( called MAD ? )
# App to have 2 buttons ( Green = IN / Red =
OUT )
# Employee to touch IN upon reaching his work-station and
touch OUT ,
while leaving work place , at the end of
work-shift . That's all !
# Being GPS enabled , buttons will get activated ONLY when
the employee
has reached the work place ( not while he is
on his way ! )
# All 100 million establishments in India ( factories /
offices / shops / clinics
NGOs / Govt Depts ) to ensure that the MAD
app is installed on the smart
phone of each employee , when he joins
# All of these smart phones to be connected ( IoT ? ) ,
with the Servers of ,
* Labour Ministries ( Central and
States )
* HRD Ministry ( Central )
* Skills Development Ministry / NSDC
* Finance Ministries ( Central + States
)
* NITI Aayog
* Income Tax Department
* Any other server that you may want to
# MAD app is integrated with a STANDARD / COMMON ,
software system
for computing daily wages / monthly
salaries of ALL the persons working
in those 100 million establishments (
whether they are casual /
contractual / trainee /
apprentice / probationer / permanent / retained
# As each person joins in any of these
establishments , data re that
person must be inputted by the Employer
into the App , such as :
* Name / Contact Details / DOB /
Aadhar Card No / Employee Number
( Each unique
Employee Number will be auto-generated by the
common Salary
Payment Software , running on IT Dept Server )
* Employee's Jandhan Yojana
Bank Account Number for salary EC
* Employer's Jandhan bank
account / Unique Employer Number
* Payment Mode ( Hourly /
Daily / Monthly Rated , wages / salaries )
* Leave provisions / PF
rate / TDS rate / Allowances / Reimbursements
* Any other relevant data (
either about employee of for employer )
WHAT ARE
THE ADVANTAGES ?
# Direct deposit of PF / TDS amounts into bank
accounts of Govt Depts
# Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT ) to every Employer
for Stipend Subsidy ,
based on number of total trainees /
apprentices employed
# Total number of employees in India ( category /
region / industry )
# Employment Density ( Industry wise / Region wise /
Skill wise etc )
# Net Employment Growth Rate ( weekly - monthly /
Industry-wise )
# Co-relation with no of persons graduating at
various levels
# Data about those Unemployed ( " Graduating
" less " Employed " )
# Overtime Statistics ( Use / Abuse )
# Work-hour Analysis ( Ave hours / week - month )
# Wage / Salary Rates ( Rs per hour ) - Industry
wise / Region wise
( of great interest to Foreign
Investors looking to bring down
manufacturing costs , by
outsourcing to India / manufacturing in India )
# Compliance with labour laws / tax laws /
Apprentice Act etc
# Job Market Forecasts through BIG DATA ANALYTIC (
region / industry )
# Demographic Profiles of employees (
Rural to Urban migration )
# Per Capita Income Growth for persons using MAD
app ( MOM / YOY )
# Changing composition between Blue Collar and White
Collar employees
===================================================
Dear Cabinet
Ministers,
Ø Indian
Railways is not the ONLY government department / agency / unit , which employs CONTRACT
WORKERS
Ø In
2019, altogether , Central Government was employing 10
LAKH contract workers
Ø Contract labour has estimated that there are a total of 3.6 crore contract labour in the country and out of them 60 lacs are covered under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 in both Central and State sphere.
( source : INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS & CONTRACT LABOUR IN INDIA )
The reform carried out by the Railways is in the right
direction, though it covers only 3.8 LAKH contract workers
Considering that all 3.6
CRORE contract workers are covered by the Minimum
wages Act, same ( reform ) can be easily extended to all
3.6 CRORE
contract workers
But then, the Minimum Wages Act applies equally to the
PRIVATE SECTOR as well ( possibly employing more than 3 CRORE contract workers
)
I urge you to modify / amend the Minimum Wages Act to
mandate,
Ø > All the establishments ( whether PRIVATE or PUBLIC ) must implement
Ø > This
must be effective from 01 April 2022
Ø > For those establishments which fail to implement, wages paid ( to contract
workers ) shall not be considered / counted as “ Legitimate / Deductible “
Business
Expenses in their annual TAX RETURNS
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 12 March 2021
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