Centre to push for social security agreements with more countries for welfare of workers

New Delhi, June 9

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The Centre will make a push to use the occasion of the upcoming General Assembly of International Labour Conference (ILC), organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, to reach a bilateral understanding with more countries for welfare of workers under the framework of Social Security Agreements.

The ILO’s General Assembly is a marquee event that will be attended by labour ministers, including Bhupender Yadav, of the member countries.

The proposed agreement and talks would take place on the sidelines of the event.

“Efforts are on to string in more nations for agreement with India to bring the Indian workers working abroad under the social security net,” Yadav said.

The operational mechanism under the framework is that the foreign countries concerned provide details of Indian expatriate workers’ provident fund accounts.

This will help the Indian government cover the expatriate workers under the social security net under its labour laws, said Yadav.

So far, India has an agreement with 19 countries, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and France. The agreement has also been signed with Brazil, but it is yet to come into effect.

Yadav said the government was focused on improving the conditions of the workers through its welfare measures.

On future plans of the ministry, he said plans were afoot to strengthen the network of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospitals in the country.

These hospitals will be linked with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, also known as Ayushman Bharat.

Besides, the Labour Ministry’s ‘e-Shram’ portal, on which unorganised workers register themselves, will be linked with other portals and facilities in the coming days.

With regard to the agenda for the General Assembly, Yadav said there would be discussions to energise the international work environment after the hit taken because of the covid pandemic.