Achievements of Ministry of Labour & Employment during the Year 2017

Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 has come into force form April 01, 2017 to increase paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. It also has mandatory provision for crèche in respect of establishments having 50 or more workers and enabling provision for work from home.

Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2017

  1. The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, has been enacted with effect from 01.09.2016. The amendment provides for complete ban on the employment of a child below 14 years and prohibition on employment of adolescent (14-18) in hazardous occupation & profession, as notified in Schedule of Hazardous occupation & profession dated 30.08.2017.
  2. Following the amendment, Ministry of Labour & Employment has framed the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2017 and notified in the Gazette of India on 02.06.2017. Further, India has now ratified two Core ILO conventions 138 and 182 on child labour.
  3. For effective implementation of the provisions of the amended Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Ministry has prepared Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to facilitate enforcement of the amended act so that the goal of child labour free India could be realised.
  4. PENCIL:  An online portal was launched on 26.09.2017 for better monitoring & reporting system to ensure effective implementation of the provisions of the amended Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 and National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme. 

Bilateral social security agreement (SSA) made with 19 countries to protect the interests of Indian professionals, skilled workers abroad; EPFO is the nodal implementing agency.

To extend the coverage to the entire workforce, ESI Corporation launched a new Employer friendly Scheme named ‘Scheme for Promoting Registration of Employers and Employees (SPREE)’.

  1. E-biz platform:- ESIC was the first organization of Central government, to integrate its services (Registration of Employers through e-biz portal of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to promote ease of business and curb transaction costs.
  1. E-Penchan:- A process of establishing the identity of the insured person through his Adhaar number has been set up by seeding his Adhaar number to his insurance number. This has simplified the identification process of the insured person and his/her dependents at various point of contact during all type of benefit disbursement. The process has enabled us to do away with the cumbersome process of making our Insured persons and their dependents to visit our offices to get their Biometrics taken for issuance of a Pehchan card.
  • The Code on Wages Bill 2017: It rationalizes, amalgamates and simplifies the relevant provisions of the following four labour laws:
  1. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948
  2. The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
  3. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, &
  4. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976

Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY):

Government of India is implementing the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojanaa (PMRPY) to incentivize employers for new employment.The scheme launched on 9th August 2016provides that Government  of India will pay the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) contribution of 8.33% for all new employees enrolling in EPFO for the first 03 years of their employment. The scheme is applicable to those having earnings Rs. 15,000/- per month. For the textile (garmenting) sector, Government of India is paying the complete 12% employers’ contribution (8.33% EPS +3.67% EPF) for these new employees till November 2017. 

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