Lok Sabha MPs seek social security measures for workforce-OxBig News Network

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) MP N. K. Premachandran speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Several MPs on Monday raised issues pertaining to workforce – employees pension scheme (EPS), work culture in multinational corporations (MNCs) and social security measures for film technicians and support staff – during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) N.K. Premachandran demanded that the government immediately implement an enhanced pension scheme under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, as approved by the Supreme Court in 2022.

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He said the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had given higher pensions to only 8,401 subscribers out of the 17,48,775 applicants for higher pensions as of August 7, 2024.

BJP MP Arun Govil urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the Labour Ministry to ensure social security and standard contracts for technicians and support staff in the film and television industry. Alleging that the producers exploited technicians and supporting actors, he urged the government to implement labour laws in the sector and provide overtime payment, provident fund and healthcare benefits to the employees.

Trains for festival season

Referring to upcoming festivities such as Christmas and New Year, Congress leader K..C Venugopal urged the government to immediately deploy special trains so that people of Kerala who were working in other States could travel home at affordable rates.

His party colleague and the Lok Sabha member from Ernakulam, Hibi Eden, raised the untimely death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant, in July 2024 while working at Ernst & Young (EY) in Pune. Her death sparked a debate on the work culture in corporate environments and employee welfare. Mr. Eden said the incident showed how the work culture in corporate companies was affecting the physical and mental health of young employees.