Haryana Cabinet approves proposal to reserve 75% private jobs for its residents

As per a proposed ordinance cleared by the state cabinet on Monday, 75 percent of private-sector jobs in Haryana will be reserved for local candidates.

The proposed move can have wider implications due to a large number of MNCs and Indian corporates being based in Gurgaon and other NCR cities falling within the state.

The draft of the ordinance will be placed before the Council of Ministers in its next meeting.

Providing 75 percent reservation in private sector jobs to the youth of the state was a key poll promise of Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party, which is a coalition partner of the BJP.

The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, approved the proposal "for drafting Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Ordinance, 2020" to address the aspect of unemployment of the local population on a priority basis, an official statement said.

"The draft of the Ordinance, that will be brought before the Council of Minister in its next meeting, will provide for 75 percent of the new employment to be given to local candidates for jobs having a salary of less than Rs 50,000 per month in various privately managed companies, Societies, Trusts, Limited Liability Partnership Firms, partnership firms etc. situated in the State of Haryana," it said.

However, the employers will have the option to recruit local candidates from one district to only 10 percent. Exemption clause shall also be provided if suitable local candidates are not available for a particular category of industry.

"Availability of a suitable workforce locally would definitely enhance the efficiency of the industry/commercial establishment. The state government has also decided to give preference to local candidates in low-paid jobs as it is socially, economically and environmentally desirable and any such preference would be in the interests of the general public," the statement said.

Speaking after the meeting, Chautala said, "Today is a historical day as now this would be mandatory for the industries or companies in the private sector to give 75 percent jobs to the Haryana youths."

He said the BJP-JJP government is committed to employing the youth.

The deputy chief minister said the employees getting monthly salary below Rs 50,000 would have to register on the portal of the labour department, which would be free of cost facility. He said the responsibility of registration would lie on the company concerned or job provider.

Chautala said the companies which would not register on the portal, would face a penalty from Rs 25,000 to Rs one lakh.

Under the Haryana State Employment to Local Candidates Act -2020, all private industries, units, firms and employment providers which would have more than 10 employees in its premises would be covered in this Act. These rules would apply to recruitment after the date of notification of this ordinance.

The deputy CM said a domicile certificate would be mandatory for the candidate to take the benefit under this scheme, which would be implemented by the labour department.

He said all those companies which would be covered under this Act would have to register the entire data of employees on the portal.

Private companies would have to inform the labour department if they are unable to find the employees according to their requirement after which they would be permitted to give jobs to the youth belonging to other states.

Earlier, the issue to provide 75 reservation to the youth of the state was discussed in a meeting of the state cabinet held in January.

The deputy CM had then said that the matter would be referred to the Legal Remembrancer for an opinion.