The International Labour Organization (ILO) has defined decent work as work that provides opportunities for productive employment, fair income, workplace security, social protection, equality, and dignity. United Nations 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development includes full and productive employment and decent work for all. Where more than 90% of workforce in labour market is without decent work, it is bound to have social implications. The frustration of young people is often manifested in frequent agitations on streets though on surface issues may be different.

Out of total workforce of nearly 61 crores workers, roughly 10% work in formal sector out of which less than 1.5 crores employees including contractual employees work in central, state governments and PSUs which is roughly 2.4% of the total workforce. Formal sector is characterised by high social security benefits. The remaining workforce works on either minimum wage or some other wage arrangement in which earning is low and variable with low social security benefits. Unorganised sector is characterised by migration, circular migration, and high mobility across various sectors of economy and jurisdiction of central and state governments.

Almost all the social security measures are for a small percent of formal sector employees be it EPF, ESI, gratuity, social welfare schemes run by various statutory Boards constituted for this purpose and new provision in the Industrial Relations Code for creation of reskilling fund which will be utilised by crediting 15 days wages last drawn by the worker to his account who is retrenched. This will be in addition to the retrenchment compensation. Trade union of workers which act as pressure groups for the rights of workers are mostly in the organised sector as unions too face challenge in organising unorganised workers.

Even formal sector workers face difficulty in getting social security benefits permanently due to mobility across regions and establishments as benefits are establishment centric rather than employee centric. EPFO has introduced UAN which is specifically designed to stay with the worker when they move between EPF-covered employers. The UAN is a permanent 12-digit number that does not change when employment changes. However, when worker moves from an EPF covered employer to a non-covered employer, the UAN is dormant and is activated when employee again joins EPF covered employer. The major challenge in providing social security benefits to workers in unorganised sector is not only the number but also their mobility and frequent change of occupation. This makes identification, registration, access to social security benefits like accident protection and health insurance difficult due to lack of reliable claim verification mechanism and absence of portability of welfare benefits.

Many western countries are providing universal social security cover to all employees. In USA, every employee has a unique social security number (SSN), which is a single social security program whereas in Canada, every employee gets social insurance number (SIN). Social security in Canada is not a single program and two main components of this program for employees are CPP(Canada pension plan), EI(Employment insurance). These programs are funded by fixed percentage of salary as employee’s contribution and matching contribution by the employer. Self-employed persons are also covered under the Canada pension plan and they pay both the employee and employer portions of CPP contributions. Under CPP retirement, disability and survivor benefits are given and EI provides temporary income during job loss or certain types of leave. India instead has a fragmented architecture, where entitlement depends heavily on whether one is an EPF or an ESIC-covered employee, or an unorganised worker. The Code on Social Security specifically provides for social-security measures for unorganised workers, including life cover, accident insurance, health benefits and old-age protection. However, these schemes are yet to be fully implemented due to lack of administrative capacity as well as requisite funds.

Unorganised workers are covered by certain specific schemes of central government like ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan’, ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’, ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’ and health insurance related scheme like ‘Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY’. Some of these schemes require matching contribution from government and worker. Only a small percentage of unorganised workers opt for these schemes. The active coverage of workers under these schemes is a challenge due to mobility of workers across establishments and occupations.

To deal with social security issue in a holistic manner, the central government may amend law to provide insurance linked social security pension, accident insurance, healthcare, certain type of leave salary and a minimum 15 days income support on job loss to all workers without any distinction. All benefits with full portability shall be provided through Aadhaar linked unique social security number (SSN) which shall be employee centric single enrolment for all benefits. A statutory body like EPFO can be created or role of EPFO enhanced to become umbrella organisation to cover all workers. This will provide social security to nearly 60 crore workers including agriculture, gig, platform and self-employed workers covered in the definition of unorganised worker under Social Security Code. Self-employed workers may get benefit by paying contribution of both employer and employee. One broad social security cover will be easier to operate as it will decrease administrative cost on multiple implementing agencies.

National portal like e-shram may become a mandatory universal worker registration and benefit delivery platform. The provision of self-registration verified by specified authorities of States will benefit self-employed, gig, platform and those workers whose employers fail to register their employees. It shall be statutory duty of states to process claims of workers expeditiously and delay shall be compensated with interest on admissible amount.

The estimated annual cost of providing insurance cover to more than 60 crore employees will be approximately 3-4 lac crores, which can be refined actuarially. The major share of cost may be recovered from matching employer-employee contribution to be deposited by employer. In addition, construction cess, corporate social responsibility fund and government contribution for already functioning schemes may be diverted for this program and only gap funding is met from government grants. The SSN will also eliminate beneficiaries receiving multiple benefits under various social security schemes of central/state governments. Time bound implementation will ensure achievement of goal of decent work by 2030 along with stabilisinglabour market. / DAILY WORLD /

( DAILY WORLD )