“Anti-Worker” law: Equivocal reformation in the Law of Labours in 3 BJP-ruled states of India
19 May 2020: Sudden changes in Indian Labour Law are enforced in three BJP-ruled states of India. The state governments of Gujrat, MP, and UP have decided to remove 44 divisions of Industrial Relation Code while recreating 4 stages of the code, such as minimum wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational hazards. The opposing party has marked the new law as the implementation of an "anti-worker" code. The newly reformed law has been declared by the authorities of the states even without the agreement of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. Bhartuhari Mehtab, the chairman of the committee has said to The Economic Times," I have decided to summon before the Standing Committee on Labour, at its earliest meeting, representatives of state governments which have made contentious changes in Labour Law through executive orders. They need to explain certain aspects of their actions." The new law has emphasized to increase the working hours of the workers from 8 hours per day to 12 hours for the minimum wage of 178. It also declared that the workers cannot anymore go for strike for their rights as the trade union will only be allowed to call for a strike if it can gather 75% of the workers' support. However, Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh and BJP Workers Union is still opposing this contentious decision taken by the state government.
The authorities have the permission of getting rid of their workers whenever they want as each factory in Gujrat, UP, and MP can have only 100 workers or less than that as well. The contractors of the factories with 50 employees do not need to have the registration of their workplace and business. The government of UP has abolished many acts of rights of their workers except Building and Other Construction Workers act, 1996, Workmen Compensation Act, 1923, Bonded Labour System (abolition) act, 1976, and Payment of Wages act. The government of Gujarat also has eliminated a few acts for the rights of workmen except from some minimum wage acts like Industrial Safety Rules and Employees' Compensation act. The governments of the previously-mentioned states are free from many laws and regulations in favor of the workers of the country for 1200 days according to the new law. However authorities of some states like Punjab, Odisha, and Rajasthan are also following these new laws for the workers, even though these states are governed by the opposite parties. Rajasthan has started the application of the reformed law from April 11 of this year. Punjab has been following these laws from April 20. The state authorities of Gujrat and Himachal Pradesh have implemented the laws of newly improvised rules for workers from April 13 and April 21, respectively.
The new law of Industrial Relation Code certifies the registration of a new business in just within 15 days via an online connection. Apart from this, the land will be available before the eighth day after applying, and over the land of 33,000 hector is already chosen for this purpose. One of the most terrible effects of this law will be that if workers have to work without the electricity supply in various regions of these states and they may have to work like this for a maximum of 72 hours of overtime in the shops and established industries. The threatening situation is not limited to this only as though the State government of Punjab and Rajasthan has sanctioned the allowance of increasing the wages of the workers as they are ready to pay wages of 16 hours if the workers work for 12 hours daily but UP, the government of Yogi Adityanath has not even bothered to discuss the wages or minimal rights of the employees with the trade union or the opposite party. According to the general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, Mr. Amarjeet Kaur has mentioned about the heavy vexation of 10 trade union of Centre against the new law for the Labours in India. He also raised the instability of this law in the crucial time of nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 and the increasing distress of the migrant workers while this time. Meanwhile, the central government has sent the proposal of implying the new Law of Labour to the government of Telangana whereas Karnataka has already shut down the basic rights and welfare of the workers in there. This law does not permit any permanency of the job or security of basic social, education, or health of the wage-earners of India. It is on the way of establishing the path of 5-year contractual job offers, throwing the country to a hire and fire employment policy. The Central Disaster Management act, 2005, and the Epidemic act,2020 are not all helping the people of the country anymore. The future of the country is assumed to be in great danger. Read the full article