Migrant Realities
Four agricultural labourers collapse from starvation in Chennai; rescued by local authorities
A group of 11 labourers arrived in Tamil Nadu seeking agricultural work in Ponneri, a town on the outskirts of Chennai. After three days without finding work, they decided to return to West Bengal. However, they ran out of money and remained at the railway station. Four collapsed on platform number 4. Following their collapse, the labourers received initial medical attention at Apollo Emergency Care Centre. The Chennai Corporation intervened by providing food and shelter to the remaining seven labourers at the city's homeless shelter.
Exporting Workers
Israel seeks to recruit 15,000 additional workers from India
This came amid reports of Tel Aviv sending back over 500 Indians after they were found to lack the requisite skills to work in construction. They will be in addition to 10,000 Indians who have already been selected to work in the West Asian country.
Express View on Indian workers: Fill the skill gap
Indian labour, both unskilled and skilled, will be increasingly in demand across the world, especially in regions characterised by an aging workforce and labour shortages… But in order for Indian workers to productively engage in the global labour market, it is critical that they receive the necessary education and training in the skills that are needed.
In the Courts
Delhi HC grants bail to four people in IAS coaching centre deaths
The Delhi high court on Friday granted interim bail till January 30, to the four co-owners of the basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar where three IAS aspirants drowned in July. Taking into consideration the grievous nature of the incident, the court also asked lieutenant governor VK Saxena to form a committee — to be headed by retired high court judge — to ensure that no coaching centre in the Capital operates from the basement, and to carve out places where such centres should operate from.
Resignation withdrawn before official acceptance by employer isn’t final: SC
The Supreme Court recently ruled that a resignation tendered by an employee has to be formally accepted by the employer and this acceptance has to be communicated to the employee for it to be considered final. That means, if the employee who puts in his papers, decides to withdraw them before the employer has accepted them, his resignation will be considered not accepted.
Research
Happiest places to work
The latest edition of the report "Happiness at Work – How Happy is India’s Workforce" presents the findings of an extensive All-India research study that explores happiness trends among different genders, age groups, regions, and industry sectors within India's urban workforce. The insights from this report are intended to guide organisations towards creating a happy workforce!
Policy Changes
‘Will give jobs to Agniveers after serving in Army’: Amit Shah
Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said it is the BJP’s responsibility to ensure jobs for Agniveers from Haryana, who are not retained after their four-year tenure in the armed forces under the Agnipath scheme, as he hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for “playing politics” over the short-term military recruitment plan.
Centre plans to review upper wage limit for PF contribution
Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said earlier this week that the Centre was trying to remove the ceiling for contributions towards the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) run by the EPFO. He said 92% of the subscribers paid a consolidated amount and the government was thinking to ease the upper limit so that they could invest more money in the EPFO.
China to raise retirement age
VIDEO: China is delaying when workers can retire, raising one of the world's lowest retirement ages by as much as five years. Nicole Sy explains why Beijing is changing a policy untouched since 1978.
Women in the Workforce
26-year-old EY Pune Employee Succumbs to 'Work Stress' Four Months After Joining, Mother Writes to Firm's India Boss
After the 26-year-old EY Pune employee died from 'work stress', her mother has written to the company's India head, accusing the firm of 'glorifying overwork'.
How BluSmart’s ‘Sakhi’ initiative empowers women in mobility
In an industry long dominated by men, BluSmart, an electric ride-hailing company, is driving a transformative change. With its ‘Sakhi’ initiative, the company is empowering women as driver partners in the electric mobility space, tackling not only the gender disparity in ride-hailing but also confronting deep-rooted societal norms that have kept women out of this sector.
Layoffs and Hirings
Samsung India laying off employees amid slowdown: ‘Senior executives removed’
Samsung Electronics plans to lay off over 200 executives in India, affecting various functions due to declining business growth and poor consumer demand. The lay-offs will happen in mobile phones, consumer electronics, home appliances and support functions which will be around 9-10% of its total managerial workforce.
Amazon India creates 110K seasonal jobs ahead of festivals
E-commerce firm Amazon India has announced the creation of over 110,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network as it prepares to serve millions of customers throughout India during the upcoming festival season. These positions include both direct and indirect roles in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Chennai, among others.
Labour Demands
Samsung Strike: Factory Workers' Strike Enters 2nd Week As Stalemate Continues
VIDEO: The strike by hundreds of factory workers in Tamil Nadu's Samsung plant entered its second week as stalemate between the workers and the electronics giant continues. What are the demands of the workers and what has Samsung said? Watch
ASHAs take out procession seeking govt. employee status, monetary benefits
Thousands of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) arrived from different parts of the Karnataka and took out a procession through the arterial roads here on Friday…they raised slogans demanding that the government consider them as government employees and extend all monetary benefits that a government employee receives.
Benefits for Workers
Why Informal Workers Aren’t Using Or Don’t Know Of Modi Govt Plan To Deliver Welfare Benefits To 380 Million
Three years after the launch of the union government’s e-Shram portal that aimed to create a national database of India’s informal migrant workers, registrations have plateaued as benefits do not reach many workers. Thousands cannot register without an Aadhaar-linked mobile number; others found occupation codes missing. Even in urban India, many have not heard about the government’s welfare schemes for workers. Article 14 spoke to around 50 informal workers, including some who had registered for e-Shram, from various occupations such as construction work, street vending, driving, gig work and work provided under MGNREGA, belonging to Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Meghalaya and Delhi. Not one could list the benefits of e-Shram.
Three years on, e-Shram portal falters due to digital and technical hurdles
An inclusive, simple registration process and increased awareness can help catalogue the informal workforce and provide much-needed social and welfare support.
Gig firms asked to register workers for labour benefits
The Union labour ministry has asked technology-based platforms and aggregators to get all gig workers engaged by them to register on the e-Shram portal, a centralised database, which will make them (the workers) eligible for publicly funded social-security benefits, according to details reviewed by HT.
Recruitment Anxiety
Govt job in Jharkhand means corruption, cheating, exam delays, court cases—JPSC to JSSC
Ranchi: In 21 years, JPSC has conducted only 13 exams when it is supposed to happen annually. There has not been a single civil services exam that hasn’t landed in court. Forty-five-year-old Manoj Yadav’s journey to become a civil servant began in 2003 with the first Jharkhand Public Service Commission exam. But the last two decades were spent on the streets of Ranchi, protesting against a system, he alleged, is rotten to the core. He has been to jail and fought cases in the Jharkhand High Court. But a government job still eludes him.
Transgender Workers
Telangana CM Launches Recruitment Drive For Transgender Traffic Volunteers
In a historic move, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has unveiled a pioneering social welfare and recruitment programme aimed at integrating the transgender community into public service. This initiative, a first for India and globally unique, seeks to empower transgender individuals by offering them roles in traffic management across Hyderabad.