Mumbai: The Maharashtra assembly on Friday unanimously passed an amendment bill defining manual work as a “core activity” for the welfare of head-loaders and porters, removing ambiguity in the type of work which will remove bogus workers.

The Maharashtra Mathadi, Hamal and Other Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) (Amendment) Bill was passed by the legislative council in the ongoing Budget session of the state legislature.

It amends the Maharashtra Mathadi, Hamal and Other Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act, 1969.

The bill also raised the minimum age limit for employment for head-loaders from 14 years to 18 years complementing various labour laws.

Labour Minister Akash Fundkar said the term ”manual work” was not defined in the existing Act which has resulted in ambiguity in defining the nature of work in employment.

The government considers it necessary to add the definition of the term manual work’ and substitute the definition of the term ”unprotected worker”, he said.

The existing Act defines unprotected workers, aged 18 to 65 years, as a manual worker. However, the definition of manual work was not provided, which the amendment bill has defined.

The bill defines manual work as any type of physical work carried out by humans without any help, support, or assistance of any type of machine. This includes manual loading, unloading, stacking, carrying, weighting and measuring work.

“The bill will facilitate curbing of extortion and gang wars in Mathadis. Bogus head-loaders will be removed from the employment,” Fundkar said.

The bill states that the state government will fill vacancies of members, other than those representing the government, on the advisory committee at the earliest.

The bill also enables the government to issue a notification or take a decision till the advisory committee becomes functional.

The panel consists of representatives of employers, workers, members of the state legislature and members from the state government.

Earlier, if the committee was not functional, the government couldn’t implement various provisions of the Act or draft schemes.