This week saw some major news about the government planning to make some significant reforms in the labour laws and job policies as the central government in its meeting with the state labour ministers made it a part of its agenda, to build a consensus on changing labour laws and formulating an employment policy. As a part of which, another development was that the government is considering a reduction in the ceiling on the number of employees in an establishment eligible to be covered under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) from 20 to 10.

A shocking coincidence though, but this week was marked by two tragic events. First a fire broke out at HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd’s (HMEL) Bhatinda refinery on last Friday morning at 6.30 am, however fortunately there were no casualties. On the other hand, at least three persons were killed and seven injured following a blast in a gas pipeline belonging to GAIL in East Godavari district yesterday. Offering a little relief to workers, the Centre has come down heavily on states asking them to pay the entire compensation to workers arising out of delay in wages by July 31 under the employment guarantee scheme, in the absence of which states will not be allowed to apply for further funds under the scheme from the Centre.

Various movements that happened over the week were; Rani Ramesh took over as the CEO of Extenta, a Technopark-based HRM solutions company. In first oil PSU appointment by the new NDA government, Ashok Varma has been appointed Director (Onshore) of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC). The world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expanding its technology centre in India where it has hired a former Oracle executive to head technology operations. Last but not the least, Wipro on Thursday said three of its ten independent directors will be leaving the company, a move that will help country’s third-largest software exporter align with the new regulations and also appoint fresh faces.