Trade unions urge Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to hike income tax ceiling, provide minimum wages

New Delhi : Trade unions urged the government to provide minimum wage of Rs 21,000, minimum pension of Rs 6,000 under Employees' Pension Scheme and tax exemption on annual income of up to Rs 10 lakh in a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.

The unions have also raised concerns over rising unemployment in the country, saying "employment generation has nose-dived in recent period".

During the meeting, they suggested that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocate necessary funds for this.

They noted that denial of level playing field to many PSUs ( BSNL, MTNL, ITI etc) had put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

The unions also pointed out that the merger of BSNL-MTNL and voluntary retirement (which is actually forced retirement) of almost 79,000 workers is just opposed to the idea of job creation.

Under the strategic sale, the government becomes minority stakeholder by reducing its share below 50 per cent of total equity.

The union have asked to extend the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA to urban areas also and enhance minimum employment guarantee to 200 days in a year.

They also lodged protest against foreign direct investment in crucial sectors, saying FDI should not be allowed in railways, defence production, financial sector, retail trade etc.

Trade unions also suggested to stop the labour law amendments that curtail the basic and trade union rights of workers and provide unhindered 'hire & fire' facilities to employers.

They also demanded that the threshold limit for coverage of establishments under the retirement fund body EPFO should be reduced to 10 workers from 20 at present.

Gratuity should be calculated on 30 days wages instead of 15 days of wages per completed year of service without any ceiling, they said.

The government should not make Aadhaar linking mandatory, the unions added.