Siddaramaiah offers sop for private sector quota
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 05, 2017, 10.46 AM IST
BENGALURU: Karnataka is set to announce a major incentive programme for private companies that provide jobs to locals. The government wants to provide one lakh jobs to local Kannadigas over the next three months, and partly fulfill one of its aborted ambitions to provide reservation in the private sector.
“The programme, Asha Deepa, is going to be unique in the entire country. No other state has done something like this before,“ said labour minister Santosh Lad.
The government will bear the employer's portion of the EPF and ESI if a company provides jobs to the youth it picks up at the Udyog Mela. The aspiring candidates will register on the government website and the companies will make selections at the job fair. The incentive will apply to jobs below the monthly salary of Rs 21,000. The statutory employer contribution is not applicable to jobs above this threshold. The government will bear 13.58% of salary towards EPF and 4.75% towards ESI that is otherwise paid by the company. The government, in other words, will pay about 18% of an employee's salary bill.
“The government will bear this for two years. And, those who take up these jobs feel secure that their jobs are secure for two years. They will also acquire some skills during this period,“ the Minister said.
CM Siddaramaiah has grabbed the idea mooted by the Labour Department and the subject is expected to come up before the Cabinet soon.
The selections, Lad said, will conform to a quota. His department has proposed that a fourth of the available jobs be reserved for SCs, 10% to STs, 30% to backward class, 15% each to minorities and general merit and 5% to physically challenged candidates. The Cabinet, however, will take the final call.
The CM is expected to host dinner for CEOs of about 1,000 companies in the Banquet Hall soon where he will announce the programme and request their support. The govern ment will need about Rs 275 crore to support one lakh employees for an entire year. Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice Chairman Shekar Viswanathan said the proposed programme signalled government recognising unemployment as the biggest challenge. “With the financial incentive, the government is not only attempting to generate more jobs but is also trying to carry the employers along.“
According to Labour Secretary Amlan Aditya Biswas, the Asha Deepa scheme will encourage private companies to hire deserving candidates across the social spectrum. “It will help private companies to pay the employees at the apex of the range. It will also assist companies to provide larger number of high-end jobs due to the reduced overall cost. In the medium term, Asha Deepa will have a multiplier effect on employment and in the long term, it will galvanise the service sector,“ he said.
Lad's team has come up with this more practical “optional“ scheme as captains of industry had slammed the talks of creating a job quota in the private sector. The Congress had floated the idea during the Lok Sabha polls, which was rejected by several people including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. “When it comes to the private sector however, we should encourage private companies to themselves be more proactive about inclusion, and not overregulate them. The focus should be on job creation -on creating more opportunity , rather than just dividing up existing opportunity ,“ Nilekani wrote in his blog.
“The programme, Asha Deepa, is going to be unique in the entire country. No other state has done something like this before,“ said labour minister Santosh Lad.
The government will bear the employer's portion of the EPF and ESI if a company provides jobs to the youth it picks up at the Udyog Mela. The aspiring candidates will register on the government website and the companies will make selections at the job fair. The incentive will apply to jobs below the monthly salary of Rs 21,000. The statutory employer contribution is not applicable to jobs above this threshold. The government will bear 13.58% of salary towards EPF and 4.75% towards ESI that is otherwise paid by the company. The government, in other words, will pay about 18% of an employee's salary bill.
“The government will bear this for two years. And, those who take up these jobs feel secure that their jobs are secure for two years. They will also acquire some skills during this period,“ the Minister said.
CM Siddaramaiah has grabbed the idea mooted by the Labour Department and the subject is expected to come up before the Cabinet soon.
The selections, Lad said, will conform to a quota. His department has proposed that a fourth of the available jobs be reserved for SCs, 10% to STs, 30% to backward class, 15% each to minorities and general merit and 5% to physically challenged candidates. The Cabinet, however, will take the final call.
The CM is expected to host dinner for CEOs of about 1,000 companies in the Banquet Hall soon where he will announce the programme and request their support. The govern ment will need about Rs 275 crore to support one lakh employees for an entire year. Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice Chairman Shekar Viswanathan said the proposed programme signalled government recognising unemployment as the biggest challenge. “With the financial incentive, the government is not only attempting to generate more jobs but is also trying to carry the employers along.“
According to Labour Secretary Amlan Aditya Biswas, the Asha Deepa scheme will encourage private companies to hire deserving candidates across the social spectrum. “It will help private companies to pay the employees at the apex of the range. It will also assist companies to provide larger number of high-end jobs due to the reduced overall cost. In the medium term, Asha Deepa will have a multiplier effect on employment and in the long term, it will galvanise the service sector,“ he said.
Lad's team has come up with this more practical “optional“ scheme as captains of industry had slammed the talks of creating a job quota in the private sector. The Congress had floated the idea during the Lok Sabha polls, which was rejected by several people including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. “When it comes to the private sector however, we should encourage private companies to themselves be more proactive about inclusion, and not overregulate them. The focus should be on job creation -on creating more opportunity , rather than just dividing up existing opportunity ,“ Nilekani wrote in his blog.
