National Federation of Labour Cooperative also known as NFCL is an apex body to help and solve the problems of labour societies in the country. In 1981 NFCL had about 14000 societies which have increased to 39000 today. Its presence was limited to only 7 states with 65 district labour cooperatives but today NFCL encompasses 16 states with 215 district labour federation.
It is strongest in the Maharashtra , Haryana and Punjab as the state governments are ready to lend help. But alas, at all India level it is still seen as poor cousin of Indian cooperatives.
NFCL has desire to convert itself as a construction agency. The Managing Director of NFCL Mr R N Pandey says that we want to compete with NBCC which gets most of the government construction contract. We are labour Federation with a large pool of labour, what is needed is consultancy which we can get from the market, says Mr Pandey
A recent notification by the UP government has done the same for the state federation of Labour cooperative thus enabling the labour cooperative to offer jobs to its members. Haryana government has provision of giving contract to such labour cooperative worth up to Rs 30 lakh without any tender. Now five persons can float a labour society and grab contracts without going into the hassle of tender business.
Having failed to get support from the government so far, NFCL has busied itself in providing help to its members such as their service tax issue, income tax issue or insurance issue. Being the interface between the labour and the government NFCL negotiate government on behalf of labour societies.
Though NFCL has got labour export license it has not started exporting them to the foreign countries. According to the MD, NFCL is in the process of getting empanelled at different foreign embassies. It must be known to readers that Indian skilled labour is in high demand in foreign countries.
