Trade unions urged the government to provide a minimum wage of Rs 21,000, a minimum pension of Rs 6,000 under Employees' Pension Scheme and tax exemption on an annual income of up to Rs 10 lakh in a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.

The unions have also raised concerns over rising unemployment in the country, saying "employment generation has nose-dived in recent period".

During the meeting, they suggested that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocatenecessary funds for this.

They demanded that all vacant sanctioned posts in various government departments, including railways, PSUs and autonomous institutions,should be filled through fresh recruitment. They also suggested the financ eminister that ban on creation of new positions and mandatory reduction of government posts should be lifted.

They noted that denial of the level playing field to many PSUs ( BSNL, MTNL, ITI etc) had put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

The unions also pointed out that the merger of BSNL-MTNL and voluntary retirement (which is actually forced retirement) of almost 79,000 workers is just opposed to the idea of job creation.

Lodging their protest against fixed-term employment (FTE),the unions said the provision of FTE should be done away with, and concerned notification should be rescinded forthwith.

They also raised the issue of price rise saying that thegovernment should ban speculative forward trading in essential commodities andtake steps to curtail hoardings along with strengthening public distribution system.

On disinvestments and strategic sale of public sector units,they said that budgetary support should be provided for the revival ofpotentially viable sick PSUs.

It also suggested that the finance minister refrains fromthe strategic sale of viable PSUs in core sectors like steel, coal, mining,heavy engineering, pharmaceuticals, dredging, civil aviation, financialinstitution, among others.

Under the strategic sale, the government becomes a minoritystakeholder by reducing its share below 50 per cent of total equity.

The union have asked to extend the rural employmentguarantee scheme MGNREGA to urban areas also and enhance minimum employment guaranteeto 200 days in a year.

They also lodged protest against foreign direct investmentin crucial sectors, saying FDI should not be allowed in railways, defenceproduction, financial sector, retail trade etc. Trade unions also suggested tostop the labour law amendments that curtail the basic and trade union rights ofworkers and provide unhindered 'hire & fire' facilities to employers.

They also demanded that the threshold limit for coverage ofestablishments under the retirement fund body EPFO should be reduced to 10workers from 20 at present. Gratuity should be calculated on 30 days wagesinstead of 15 days of wages per completed year of service without any ceiling,they said.

The government should not make Aadhaar linking mandatory,the unions added. On the income tax exemption, they urged that the ceiling forincome tax for salaried persons and pensioners should be raised to Rs 10 lakhper year.

Besides, they also demanded that the income tax ceiling forsenior citizens should be raised to Rs 8 lakh. All perks and fringe benefitslike housing, medical and education facilities and running allowances inrailways should be exempted from income tax net totally, they said.

"During the course of the meeting, representatives ofTrade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestionsregarding labour and employment issues. Discussions were held on skilling,re-skilling and up-skilling of the existing labour force. Quality of jobcreation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were discussed," a financeministry statement said.

It also stated that during the meeting, representatives oftrade unions and labour organisations shared their views and suggestionsregarding job creation, labour concerns and quality of employment issues.

They also emphasised the quality of job creation andensuring minimum wages of workers in detail besides the need for streamliningvarious schemes to have better results, it added.

Along with the finance minister, the meeting was attended byAnurag Singh, Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs,Rajeev Kumar and top officials of labour and finance ministries.