Skilling
Skill India Mission: Short Courses, No Employable Skills and a Lack of Jobs
The India Skills Report 2021 argues that nearly half of India’s graduates are unemployable. Open unemployment was barely 2.1% in 2012 and had already nearly tripled to 6.1% in 2018, the highest rate in 45 years of India’s labour force surveys.
Livelihoods
Kachchh potters fired up for change with improved kilns
An initiative introducing energy-efficient kilns to traditional potters in Kachchh, Gujarat, reduces firing time and firewood requirement, addressing concerns of energy-intensive pottery-making while benefiting both artisans and the environment. In the Kachchh region, an improved kiln has reduced fuel requirement to 40-50%, as well as reduced time to four to five hours.
Reports
Social Protection in India’s Platform Economy: Unpacking Supply Dynamics
Platforms offer a mix of social security benefits to their workers. This has been observed, with some variations, across the four types of platforms studied, viz. passenger mobility, hyperlocal delivery, home services, and e-commerce.
In the Courts
Hearing difficulty no reason to deny conservancy worker job, rules Madras High Court
Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar allow a 2018 writ petition challenging the rejection by the selection committee, and direct the Registrar General of the High Court to employ the petitioner within four weeks
Wage Revision
India plans to shift from minimum wage to living wage by 2025
Living wages – a minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs, factoring in key social expenditure by an individual such as housing, food, healthcare, education and clothing – were endorsed by the ILO earlier this month. These would be higher than basic minimum wages. “We could go beyond minimum wages in a year,” a senior govt official told ET.
ILO reaches agreement on the issue of living wages
GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has reached an agreement on the issue of the living wage. The meeting of experts agreed that decent wages are central to economic and social development and to advance social justice.
Wage-setting in global value chains
More than 450 million people work in global supply chain-related jobs. When combined with these workers’ families, the number of individuals directly affected by wage-setting in global value chains rises to 2 billion. So, how are companies currently supporting a world in which workers earn living wages such that they and their families are meeting their basic needs?
Cong pledges national minimum wage at Rs 400 a day if voted to office
Congress has promised a national minimum wage at Rs 400 per day, if voted to power. It also said that the same wage will apply for MGNREGS. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the real wage increase in 10 years of Modi govt has been less than 1%, while it was 8.6% for agriculture and 6.9% for non-agriculture sectors, respectively, during 2009-14 under UPA govt.
Indian garment workers protest delay in wage increase
On 12 February, the Garment and Fashion Workers’ Union (GAFWU), affiliated to IndustriALL through Unions United, protested outside the labour commissioner’s office in Chennai, India, against the prolonged delay in the notification of the new minimum wage.
Women in the Workforce
Hiring of women in C-suite roles going up: Survey
The number of women hired in C-suite roles has moved up. Now .. around 16% of all women hires are CXOs, and 8% are CEOs or MDs, a survey by Executive Access, done exclusively for TOI, showed. A decade back the number of women CEOs was around 2%, while their percentage in CXOs was 7-8%.
Tear that invisibility cloak
Millions of women house help work in Indian households. In reality, they form the invisible engines that power daily life in these establishments. Yet, over 87% of them have been employed without written contracts, 77% face violence, and 85% have no social security, leading to a web of exploitative conditions that is masked by informality.
World Bank report says women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns: what is the gender pay gap?
What exactly does this “gap” measure, and what does this tell us about women and men and the differences in the work they do? We explain.
Tailpiece
‘Yams over grenades’ in Assam. Samir Bordoloi & his green commandos make farming cool again
Rupnagar: In the Northeast, most young people, when asked what they want to do for a living, will say they want to join the Army or a security agency. So when Samir Bordoloi started his ‘Green Commandos’ programme, it came with all the markers of an Army role—a uniform, a disciplined lifestyle, a sense of pride and independence. But instead of putting grenades in the hands of his commandos, he handed them yams.
Labour Demands
Industry not in sync with K'taka IT union's demands to end labour exemption
Captains of the IT industry do not seem to agree with the Karnataka IT Union’s (KITU) demand for the state government to end the exemption given to the IT/ITeS sector from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act. The sector, which employs more than two million workers in Karnataka, has obtained an exemption from the applicability of this Act on more than four occasions. The current exemption is about to lapse by May 25, 2024.
Jobseekers
Laid-off Startup CXOs Stranded as Big Cos Find Pay Too Much
Several CXOs laid off by startups are left stranded as traditional companies are not willing to hire them at inflated salary levels and fancy designations that lured these senior professionals to quit large companies for startups a couple of years ago. This has created a burgeoning pool of ‘unemployed CXOs’ in the job market, officials from startups, large companies and search firms said.
Employment News
Employment scenario in India grim, says ILO report
India’s youth account for almost 83% of the unemployed workforce and the share of youngsters with secondary or higher education in the total unemployed youth has almost doubled from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022, as per the India Employment Report 2024 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD) here on Tuesday.
How unplanned coal mine closures in India are affecting dependent communities, especially women
The closure of ten mines in Bijuri and Kotma municipalities of Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, has left around 5,000 people unemployed, triggering social and economic challenges, especially for women… With the mine closures, high-ranking government officials deployed by SECL to oversee the operations have moved out. This has led to loss of business for those catering to the daily needs and domestic work of the officials who were stationed in Anuppur district.
42% growth in jobs for Indian sailors in 2013-17
The four years between 2013 and 2017 saw a growth of 42.3% in shipboard jobs for Indian sailors. Mind you, India is some ways behind China, which contributes 33% of the world's sailors. There's a difference though. Most Chinese sailors work on board Chinese vessels, while India's seafarers work in national as well as foreign ships.
Dying at Work
LABOUR LOG: Under-Construction Work Sites, Sewers Becoming Death Traps
Over 30 contractual labourers lost their lives in various work sites in the past week. India has an abysmal record in poor working conditions, poor wages and worker deaths at workplace, more so in what is called the informal or unorganised sector, especially on construction sites, in mines or while cleaning sewage.
Worker Welfare
Construction Workers’ Welfare: Anatomy of a fall
The failing social welfare boards, sitting on crores of unutilised funds, must reignite their efforts to serve building and construction workers.
Centre to Fast Track Enrolment of Unorganised Workers on e-Shram
The Centre is expediting the enrollment of unorganized sector workers on the e-Shram portal, which provides a universal account number (UAN) and supports them with skilling and employment initiatives. Discussions with various ministries and state governments are underway to integrate data and eliminate duplication, ensuring accurate records of unorganized workers. The move precedes the Lok Sabha elections, anticipating future social security benefits or the implementation of Labour Codes. The portal currently has 295 million registered workers, aiding the government in tracking the impact of social sector schemes.