Andhra assembly in session

VIJAYWADA: Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in the country to reserve jobs for locals in all private industrial units and factories, irrespective of whether or not these companies get financial or other help from the government.

On Monday, the Andhra assembly passed the Andhra Pradesh Employment of Local Candidates in Industries/Factories Act, 2019, which reserves 75% private jobs across all categories in industrial units, factories, joint ventures as well as projects that are in public-private partnership mode.

Although many states have been making noises about reserving a big chunk of private jobs for locals, they have not implemented it as yet. Madhya Pradesh had only on July 9 stated that it would bring a law to reserve 70% of private sector jobs for locals. Immediately after coming to power in December 2018, chief minister Kamal Nath had announced an industrial policy that made it mandatory to give 70% of jobs to locals in companies availing financial and other facilities from the government. The demand has existed in Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra as well.

The new Andhra Pradesh law states that if locals with the necessary skills are not available, then the companies would have to train them in association with the state government and then hire them. Experts say that with this, companies will not be able to hide behind the excuse of not finding skilled labour.

The act also says that only those units that are listed in the first schedule of the Factories Act will be exempted from the act after the government looks into each application and takes a call. These are mostly hazardous industries like petroleum, pharmaceuticals, coal, fertilisers and cement, among others.

Companies will have to comply with these provisions within three years of the commencement of the act and will have to provide quarterly reports about local appointments to a nodal agency. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised the reservation in the run-up to the assembly election.

"The act is both good and bad. Good because it gives an indication of the government's policy to promote local hiring in the state. But the government has to ramp up its skill development centres in the state to train locals to be ready to be hired in manufacturing and IT companies," said Vijay Naidu Galla, president and CEO of Tirupati-based Amara Raja industrial group and chairman of CII-AP.

( With inputs from Shaukat Mohammed )

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