MAPUSA
Putting the government on the back foot over reserving jobs for Goans in the private sector, the Opposition led by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on Friday said there was ample scope to reserve 80 per cent of the jobs for locals but the government has no will to do so.
Sardesai also said that the government was not interested in taking up either his private member’s bill seeking reservation of 80 per cent jobs for locals or the POGO bill.
He further hit out at the government for announcing of “potential” 80,000 jobs in Goa which only lures “outsiders” to come and fetch employment in the State.
“If you want to give jobs to Goans and if you want the private sector to grow, then you will have to make some policy decisions. The Goa government has a chance to reserve 80 per cent of jobs for locals in private industries. You have the domicile clause but are not using it. There is no will from the government. We want the government to maintain accurate employment data and we want employment for locals,” Sardesai said.
The Fatorda MLA was debating the question of the number of Goans employed in the private and government sector raised by Sankalp Amonkar during the Question Hour.
Labour Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monseratte informed the House that the government only had the data of youth that have registered in employment exchange while there was no statistic of employees hired by the private industries.
“We don’t have any data as far as private companies are concerned, but I have instructed our officers to get it from every company of people employed in Goa,” Monseratte said.
Sardesai said as per the Employment Exchange Act 1959, the government has a right to ask every employer to furnish information about vacancies that have occurred or are about to occur.
He also said that under the same act, the government has a right to access all labour-related information from the private industries.
“There are laws but the department officials are not making use of these laws. The companies have to maintain the data on the online portal of the employment exchange. We will then come to know whether Cipla is hiring Goans or people from the manager’s hometown,” he said.
He pointed out that the government in its Economic Survey 2022 announced 80,000 potential jobs in the State.
He said with the “potential jobs” offer the government was inviting outsiders to come for jobs here and further advised tweaking the ‘potential’ word and using ‘target’ jobs instead.
“When we say 80,000 potential jobs, people from Sawantawadi and Karwar come here and they only get the jobs,” Sardesai said.
According to Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, the labour department was one of the most powerful departments and the concerned minister should ensure that all the other departments come under its control.
He said many times private companies refuse to furnish information demanded by the government.
“As the chairman of the Public Undertaking Companies, I had asked for the data of employees registered with the industries at Verna but they were hesitant and refused to furnish details,” Kamat disclosed.
He said there was a need to bring some control on these industries so that they comply with the laws of the land.
Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar, Cuncolim MLA Yuri Alemao and Mayem MLA Premendra Shet also spoke.
