Sitharaman holds Pre-Budget Consultation with Trade Unions

New Delhi: Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman held her 5th Pre-Budget Consultation with the representatives of various Trade Unions and Labour Organisations on Thursday. During the course of meeting, representatives of Trade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding labour and employment issues. Discussions were held on skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of the existing labour force. Quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were discussed.

During the pre-Budget Consultation, representatives of Trade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding job creation, labour concerns and quality of employment issues. The participants aired their concerns about the provision of social security to labour besides skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of the existing labour force. They also emphasised the quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers in detail besides the need for streamlining various schemes to have better results. 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 MSMEs, increase in social sector spending, unorganised sector workers' benefits including landless farm labourers, strengthening of tripartite & bipartite mechanisms, consultations with TUs for finalising Code on Safety, Industrial Relations & Social Security.

Along with the Union Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar, Secretary DEA Atanu Chakraborty, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Chairman CBDT Pramod Chandra Mody, Chief Economic Adviser Dr K.V. Subramanian, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour & Employment Heeralal Samaria, DG of the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute H. Srinivas and other senior officials of Ministry of Finance.