JOBS MAY SOON BE CLASSIFIED ON BASIS OF SKILLS

The Centre has for the first time proposed classifying occupations on the basis of skills to remove arbitrariness while determining the level of minimum wage rates for different types of work. The draft Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2019, which has been put in the public domain for consultation by the labour and employment ministry, has defined different skilled occupations in categories of semi-skilled, skilled, unskilled, and highly skilled.

This is a departure from the practice where the government fixes different rates of wages based on skills and geographical area but does not specify which work would be skilled or unskilled, leaving a scope of grey area in the law. SOMESH JHA writes

The Centre has for the first time proposed classifying occupations on the basis of skills, to remove arbitrariness while determining the level of minimum wage rates for different types of work.

The draft Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2019, which has been put in the public domain for consultation by the labour and employment ministry, has defined different skilled occupations in categories of semi-skilled, skilled, unskilled, and highly skilled.

This is a departure from the practice where the government fixes different rates of wages based on skills and geographical area but not specify which work would be skilled or unskilled, leaving a grey area in the law. According to the draft rules, unskilled occupations

would mean jobs that “require the application of simply the operating experience and involve no further skills,” and

skilled occupations as those which “involve skill and competence in its performance through experience on the job

or through training as an apprentice in a technical or vocational institute and the performance of which calls for initiating and judgment.”

Occupations that require skill “acquired through intensive technical or professional training or practical occupational experience for a considerable period” will be termed ‘highly skilled’, it said.

“Employers used to exploit workers by terming their work as unskilled or semi-skilled, even when their occupation required certain skill sets, keeping them in a lower salary bracket. The ministry has come out with a list of occupations skill-wise, which will be dynamic in nature,” a senior ministry official said, requesting anonymity.

In the draft rules, among 681 listed professions, armed security guards, supervisors, surveyors, and carpenters (class I) are proposed to be treated as highly skilled professionals; electricians, tailors and drivers are skilled; cooks and cobblers as semi-skilled, and dairy coolies, office peons and sweepers as unskilled.

“It is important to specify what will be treated as skilled or unskilled but the approach followed by the central government is flawed. If a person who is classified as unskilled works for a long period of time in the same occupation, he or she cannot be termed an unskilled worker forever, as they acquire some skills with work experience,” Rss-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said.

The central government has proposed to constitute a technical panel, headed by the chief labour commissioner, to advise it in skill categorisation, keeping in mind the national classification of occupation or the National Skills Qualification Framework.