Congress dubs NDA government anti-labour

New Delhi, Aug 10 

Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government as anti-labour, the Congress on Wednesday questioned its intention in bringing the Factories Amendment Bill, 2016 with only a few minor amendments while the Factories Amendment Bill, 2014 is still a property of the House.

"What is the urgency to bring the bill while the bill of 2014 is still a property of the House. We asked the same question to the government but they did not have any answer," Congress spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi said here at a press conference.

Terming the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's move as anti-labour, Gogoi said that all the labour reforms related policies of the government were heavily criticised by all the major labour organisations.

He said the government labour policies are in favour of factories and corporate houses.

"The makers of India are sitting in their home due to lack of employment while the government is promoting 'Make in India'," he said.

Earlier, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya introduced the Factories Amendment bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha despite objections from the Congress.

The Factories Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to enhance the limit of overtime hours from the present ceiling of fifty hours per quarter to one hundred hours.

The proposed amendment also intends to further increase the limit of overtime hours to a maximum of one hundred and twenty five hours per quarter in the public interest.

The amendment will also empower the central government and the state governments to make exempting rules and exempting orders in respect of the total number of hours of work on overtime.