Press Release of Platform of Central trade Unions and Sectoral Federations/Associations
Press Release
The following statement issued to the press by the Platform of Central Trade Unions after meeting the finance minister on pre-Budget consultations with Trade Unions held today-6th January 2025.
The platform of ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs) submitted a joint memorandum to the finance minister in the Pre-budget consultations to press for their expectations from the Budget 2025-2026. They once again demanded to address the unemployment issue, to fill the sanctioned vacant posts in PSUs and the central and state Government departments, to lift the ban on creation of new posts, end to policy of outsourcing and contractorisation for more investments in labour intensive industries, MSMEs, more of generation of livelihood schemes for self-employment, increase in days of MGNREGA to 200 with wage increase for Rs600/-, initiation of new policy for urban employment guarantee etc.
They demanded rollback of the policies of privatisation, disinvestment and sale of PSUs and Government services to private players.
They also demanded for increase in threshold of EPF and ESIC for coverage as well as to extend the coverage for the benefit of informal economy workforce including gig/app-based workers and domestic workers steadily to make these statutory schemes inclusive. The Recommendation of the ILC to government worker status to Scheme workers and their inclusion to ESIC was also raised by all unions.
The CTUs wanted the FM to intervene for conduct of ILC at the earliest for redressal of grievances of the CTUs in the interest of industrial peace.
They also reiterated their demand for withdrawal/ Scrap of Four Labour Codes.
To generate funds, the government should raise the tax on corporates, introduce wealth tax, and gift tax.
Several other issues were raised in the Memorandum (the copy of the joint memorandum to FM is attached.)
Upload.Memorandum to FM from CTUs_2025 (1)