Union Minister Pradhan in his two letters to his Cabinet colleagues said, “Deployment of contract labour in jobs like raising or raising-cum-selling of cool, cool loading and unloading, overburden removal have been prohibited by Section-10 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970. However, Section 31 of the Act provides for exemption in special cases subject to prescribed conditions and restrictions. Industries engaged in coal mining in Angul district of Odisha have been taking exemptions under such provisions to employ contract labour.”
On 29th May 2019, NTPC has been waived off the applicability of Section-10 for the cool mining blocks of NTPC for a period of 5 years after due consideration by the Central Advisory Contract Labour Board (CACLB) subject to the payment of wages and other benefits as per recommendations of High-Powered Committee appointed by the Coal India Ltd, and other prescribed conditions, he said.
“NALCO, another industry major engaged in cool mining in Angul has also applied for exemption under Section 31 of the Act to the Ministry of Labour and Employment through the Ministry of Mines. The CACLB has already conducted various meetings with representatives of NALCO and MDO engaged for Utkal D and E coal blocks. Its report has been submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Employment,” the Union Minister said.
Despite these guidelines, some contractors and MDOs are denying payment of High-Powered Committee recommended wages and benefits to their workers engaged in cool mines of NALCO, Pradhan said in the letter.
Thus Union Minister Pradhan urged his two Cabinet colleagues to notify the exemption and strong enforcement by the management of NALCO by ensuring the payment of CACLB recommended wages and benefits to contractual labours engaged in their cool mines by the contract tor and MDO, as per applicable provisions of law.
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