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LABOUR LAWS AND EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA

Business Law Project

9/18/2015

Akriti ,Mallika,Sanaa ,Sanjeevand Smriti

Introduction

On 2nd September 2015 ,around 15 crore workers from 10 unions went on strike after talks with a group of

ministers led by finance minister Arun Jaitley failed following three rounds of discussions in July and

August.. The strike, the biggest in India for more than two years, included staff at state-run banks and

mines as well as some factory, construction and transport workers.

This was done in opposition of the labour reforms of the central government. Unions say labour reforms

planned by Modi's government will put jobs at risk, and are demanding it scrap changes that would make it

easier to lay off workers and shut down unproductive factories.

Many industrial and commercial establishments, including factories. preferred to shut their units because of

fear and threat of vandalism by trade union leaders and their supporters

Ten central trade unions, including Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Central Council of

Trade Unions (AICCTU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS),

Trade Union Coordination Committee (TUCC) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC), All India

Trade Union Congress (AITUC), had given the strike call along with their supporters and state labour

unions. Unions declared the strike a massive success.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made repeated calls to the global community to come and “make in

India”For this reason  Modi is preparing to launch India’s biggest overhaul of labour laws since

independence in a bid to create millions of manufacturing jobs, at the risk of stirring up a political backlash

that could block other critical reforms.

But investors with capital and technology have a variety of destinations to choose from and will obviously

look for the best opportunities. In today’s business environment, the ability to right-size the workforce in

response to changing market conditions is crucial for success, and restrictions on employee adjustments are

considered unnecessary impediments. This does not imply compromising with workers’ protection and

welfare for corporate greed. It has been aptly stated that “those who have less in life should have more in

law.”

In spite of labour laws been widely studied and various recommendations to re-invent/evolve labour laws

in the current leg of globalization, the issues pertaining to welfare of labour and flexibility of the firms to

grow in sync with market conditions for better industrial relations, persists even today. For the past many

years it has been argued (especially by employers) that labour laws in India are excessively pro-worker in

the organized sector and this has led to serious rigidities that has resulted in adverse consequences in terms

of performance of this sector as well as the operation of the labour markets. There have been

recommendations by the government to reform labour laws in India by highlighting the need for flexibility

in Indian labour laws that would give appropriate flexibility to the industry that is essential to compete in

international markets. But the attitude has mainly been towards skill enhancement and focus on flexible

labour markets rather than assessment of proper enforcement of the laws, assessment of the situation of

different categories of employers and coverage of the social protection system. This paper makes an

attempt to present an overview of existing literature pertaining to this issue and brings forth some major

concerns that ought to need attention before any alternate framing of labour laws.

Status of Labour Laws in India

When arriving at the ‘Doing Business’ rankings, the World Bank ranks 11 parameters that impact

businesses across various stages of their lifecycle – at start-up, getting a location, getting financing, daily

operations and even when things go wrong.

This reflects poorly on the country's ability to provide a conducive environment for entrepreneurs. Even

much smaller countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan have fared better. The reason perhaps lies in the

old saying 'the devil is in the detail'. Liberalisation at the macro level has not quite been followed up with

changes in the routine processes that businesses negotiate on a daily basis, starting from simple company

registration to land acquisition to filing of regulatory compliances.

To maintain its growth trajectory, India needs to be a relatively attractive investment destination across

each of these parameters. The Government would need to undertake reforms to help place the country on

an equal footing amongst countries having favourable, flexible, liberalised and a transparent business

environment.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. However, India’s position in the ‘Doing

Business’ annual reports published by the World Bank continues to be less than favourable. The latest

rankings place India 134th among 185 countries; lower than its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South

Africa) counterparts. There is an urgency to focus on improving the business environment and arrest the

decline in relative performance against various determinants of investment attractiveness

While the Indian economy is booming, there is evidence that workers are not partaking in the boom

adequately. Employment is not growing as fast as working age population, nor are wages rising as

rapidly as per capita income. There are many reasons for this – some to do with forces of globalisation

that are beyond the Indian government’s policy reach. But much of it has to do with the ‘culture’ that

pervades our labour markets, which in turn is a consequence of the complicated and ill-conceived laws

that govern the labour market.

Too many laws

In India there are 45 laws at the national level and close to four times that at the level of state

governments that monitor the functioning of labour markets. Unfortunately, the experience has been to

the contrary. According to World Bank estimates, in 2004, there were 482 cases of major work

stoppages, resulting in 15 million human days of work loss. Between 1995 and 2001 around 9% of

factory workers were involved in these stoppages. The figure for China is close to zero. On the other

hand, the wages of Chinese workers are rising much faster than that of India’s. These facts are not

unrelated.

Too many labour laws, many of which are outdated with marginal changes carried out in them over the

years, continue to complicate matters particularly for small and medium-scale industries.

Short-sighted policy

Most of India’s labour laws were crafted with scant respect for ‘market response.’ If X seemed bad, the

presumption was that you had to simply enact a law banning X. But the fact that each law leads

entrepreneurs and labourers to respond strategically, often in complicated ways, was paid no heed.

In a poor country no one with any sensitivity wants workers to lose their jobs. So what does one do?

Prevent workers from layoff, exactly what industrial disputes act does.

Some commentators have argued that India’s labour laws could not have had much of a consequence

since most of them apply to only the formal sector. What they fail to realise is that one reason the

formal sector has remained miniscule is because of these laws (and also the culture that the laws have

spawned).

 Complex maze of approval systems

A construction permit requires up to 20 permits and it takes over two months to obtain them. It takes

about seven to eight months to obtain a Category A environmental clearance. End-to-end automation of

government approval processes involving both central and state governments is an idea which can help

reduce approval periods dramatically. Applications, instead of moving through different government

departments sequentially, can be considered concurrently by respective departments to facilitate

simultaneous approvals.

This makes Starting a Business with Costs incurred in the whole process high

Contract enforcement and dispute resolution within well-defined time lines is a critical driver of

business in developed markets. At present, it takes several years for a commercial litigation to achieve

finality. We need to urgently strengthen the institutional mechanism by increasing the number of courts

and tribunals with requisite infrastructure to enable them to function efficiently. E-enablement of the

entire dispute resolution process through introduction of e-filing and e-service across courts can

dramatically improve the pace.

. Data from the Ministry of Labour reveal that in the year 2000 there were 533,038 disputes pending in

India’s labour courts; and of these 28,864 had been pending for over 10 years. If India is to be a vibrant

global economy, this has to change.

Exit Procedures for a Company

Entry of new companies and exit of failed ones is a part of life. Unfortunately, exit procedures for

Indian companies continues to be quite complex involving multiple and time-consuming formalities

under various co

rporate laws, tax laws, labour laws etc. The formalities not only entail significant compliance costs but

lock precious funds and capital assets in non-viable businesses that could be productively employed in

other ventures. Global best practices can be of great help here. The UK's liquidation processes and US

bankruptcy laws can be great examples to emulate.

Complex Tax Structure

India's complex and multi-layered tax structure (central, state, local) not just make it a difficult place to

do business but make it a high-cost place as well. The new Goods and Services Tax, so rightly seeking

to get rid of this 'one country, several markets' syndrome, has long been pending because of lack of

consensus among state governments. It's high time all stakeholders come on the same page to drive

home this critical reform at the earliest to realise our dream of 'one country, one market'.

Recent Land Acqusition Bill

Availability of land is a critical input for businesses such as manufacturing and infrastructure.

Ironically, the new Land Acquisition Act has only worsened the situation by bringing into force some

extremely complicated provisions. Obstructionist clauses like obtaining the consent of 70 per cent of

project-affected families in case of public-private partnership projects and 80 per cent families in case

of private sector projects are expected to increase the average acquisition time to about 56 months. A

dramatic drop in land acquisition after the Act came into force reflects the aggravating situation. The

Act not only needs to be rationalised at the earliest but needs to be supplemented with appropriate

amendments in state laws.

Contract Enforcement is complicated and time consuming :

The time taked from filing to final judgement seems unreasonable to most of the business owners.Costs

involved (costs for engaging and retaining lawyers , miscellaneous costs ,the ones incurred during the

interim stage, enforcement costs) and pose significant obstacles.

Need for flexibility

Eyck states three basic theories for perceived need for flexibility in labour markets. The first one

emphasizes on the need for labour force to change according to the market fluctuations which happens

because of increase in specialized products that requires firms to quickly change the size, composition,

and at times the location of the workforce. The second emphasizes on lowering the labour costs and

increasing productivity because of rising competitiveness. The third is the political economy

perspective which advocates free markets where there would be no government intervention and

interference of trade unionism. This kind of new employment relations and occupations have the

potential to generate more employment and also make available a range of opportunities to both

workers and employers. So in for any state to achieve this kind of flexibility would depend on the how

it will be introduced through legislative reforms. In those countries where labour market rigidities are

caused by excessive legislative regulation, flexibility tends to focus on how national legislative reform

may grant greater freedom for individual employers or social partners to negotiate the terms of

flexibility

A ‘strong’ argument for labour market regulation to enhance investment and employment which would

bring about equality in the labour market and provide for flexibility in free entry and exit. As excessive

institutional interventions markets do not clear and make wages ‘sticky’ which affects the freedom of

employers to adjust the quantities of resources leading to unemployment. Hence, in order to protect the

existing employees, potential employees (even retrenched workers) remain unemployed or enter the

unorganized sector with no social security or political power.

Rangarajan (2006) also believes that in order to achieve faster growth rate emphasis should be laid on

labour intensive sectors by skill development of the labour force and flexibility of labour laws. Also

flexibility is not just related to ‘hire and fire strategy’ and that business units will have to function under

legitimate restrictions.

What is needed now is not a law that allows employers to fire workers at will but one that allows for

different kinds of contracts. Some workers may sign a contract for a high wage but one that requires

them to quit at short notice; others may seek the opposite. This would allow firms to employ different

kinds of labour depending on the volatility of the market they operated in

What is needed are changes in order to create greater private-sector demand for labour, which will

boost wages and employment. In brief, we need to move to a system that

(1) makes room for more flexible contracts in the labour market,

(2) has a minimal welfare net for workers who are out of work, and

(3) resolves labour market disputes more quickly.

To circumvent the rigorous labour policies, companies are either shifting their manufacturing

bases to foreign countries or turning capital intensive, reducing their manpower needs. Besides

swelling unemployment, these measures are also pushing people to the informal sector

India is a labour surplus country with 47 million unemployed below the age of 24 years and 12-13

million youths joining the labour market every year. To avoid the growing unemployment, India

strongly needs labour intensive and labour friendly industries.

Most of the labour laws were enacted 40-70 years back, to address the then needs of regulating the

manufacturing sector. Today, service sector has taken the lead with 55% share in the GDP.

Labour Laws need to be reoriented to address the emerging needs of the service sector and the

new technology intensive manufacturing sector.

Besides, in a dynamic economic context, laws need to be reviewed from time to time to bring

them in tune with the changing needs of the economy, such as higher levels of productivity,

competitiveness and investment promotion.

The following table summarises some of the points mentioned

Labour Laws of Current Concern

As we have seen , bringing in flexibility in the labour market and hence flexibility in labour

laws is , an important matter in any agenda on structural reforms. The main accusation

against the labour laws is that in the absence of flexible labour markets in the organized

sector growth in output is not leading to a proportionate growth in employment hence the

employers are going for more capital intensive production processes because of labour

becoming a fixed input. Hence though the labour laws are meant to protect the jobs of the

workers, the scope for creation of more job opportunities in future is being lost. Therefore

India’s comparative advantage of enormous labour abundance is not being adequately

utilized because of the high wage lands created by the labour legislation in the organized

sector (Debroy, 2001). There is a lack of consensus amongst the employers and workers

which is being an impediment to any proposed changes in the labour laws

Viewed from this perspective, FICCI feels that the following changes in labour laws are

overdue and must be brought in to ensure employment led growth.

1. Labour to be shifted to ‘State List’

Under Article 246 of the Indian constitution, issues related to labour and labour welfare come

under List –III that is the Concurrent List . Labour being in the concurrent list of the

constitution, both central and state government legislate on it. But the State Governments

have limited space to enact labour laws to address their own requirements - promoting

investment and employment generation.

To give more economic independence to the State Governments and promote federalism, It is

suggested shifting labour to the State list, from existing concurrent list of the constitution.

2. Multiplicity of Labour Laws

Currently, there are 44 labour laws under the purview of Central Government and more than

100 under State Governments, which deal with a host of labour issues. Unfortunately, these

labour laws protect only 7-8 percent of the organised sector workers employed at the cost of

93 per cent unorganised sector workers. The entire gamut of the labour laws should therefore

be simplified, clubbed together wherever possible and made less cumbersome to make the

environment more employment friendly.

a. Simplification of archaic laws

We must create single window system under the common headlines/sets. Initially we can

start with reducing these to four sets of labour laws as following-

(i)Laws governing terms and conditions of employment, which may consolidate:

(a)Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

(b)Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946

(c)Trade Unions Act. 1926

(ii)Laws governing wages, which may consolidate:

(a)Minimum Wages Act, 1948

(b)Payment of Wages Act, 1936

(c)Payment of bonus act

(iii)Laws governing welfare which may consolidate:

(a)Factories Act, 1948

(b)Shops and Establishments Act

(c )Maternity Benefits Act, 1961

(d)Employees’ Compensation Act, 1952 and

(e)Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970

(iv)Laws governing social security, which may consolidate:

(a)Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952

(b)Employees State Insurance Act, 1948

(c )Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972

b. A uniform definition of terms like ‘industry’ and ‘worker’ is necessary across

statutes. For better interpretation and understanding, industry should be termed as

‘enterprise’ and workman should be termed as ‘employee’.

c. Multiplicity of labour laws has promoted multiple inspections, returns and registers.

To avoid these, a single Labour Authority dealing with all aspect of labour, self-

certification and a single consolidated return should be put in place. We are given to

understand that the Labour Ministry has initiated developing a single web portal to

address the issue of self-certification and return, FICCI would like to appreciate the

Ministry on this initiative.

d. Reduction/ reforms in dispute settlement mechanisms between labour and employers.

There are more than 4 levels of dispute settlement which are available after

arbitration. These should be reduced to maximum one or two levels on a priority

basis.

e. So far the applicability of labour laws is concerned the MSME sector is treated at par

with large scale enterprises with similar rigorous provisions in the legislations.

Whereas, MSME enterprises should be subjected to few simple and less cumbersome

labour laws which make compliance easier.

A separate set of simple labour laws should apply to enterprises employing less than

50 employees to promote micro and small enterprises with a self-contained code

covering laws on employment relations, wages and social security. These enterprises

termed as ‘smaller enterprises’ should be exempted from the application of the

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act,

1946 as recommended by the 2nd National Commission on Labour.

3. Following are section wise key suggestions required in the existing laws: A.

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

The Industrial Disputes Act provides for machinery and procedure for investigation

and settlement of industrial disputes and applies to all industries irrespective of size.

Apart from this it has conditions for lay offs, retrenchment and closure of an industry.

It has 40 sections with five chapters and five schedules. Various amendments to the

act were made since 1947. The main amendments were as follows: 1972.

i. Title and objective of the legislation

The existing title Industrial Disputes Act, presupposes existence of disputes and limits the

scope of the legislation to resolving disputes only. To amplify its scope and promote

employer-employee relationship, the legislation should be renamed as ‘Employment

Relations Act’.

ii.Definition of ‘industry’

The definition of ‘industry’ under Section 2(j) had been amended in 1982, but could not be

enforced due to absence of a parallel machinery to investigate and settle the disputes in the

excluded category of the establishments. Parliament in its own wisdom thought it prudent to

save certain institutions like hospitals, education and research institutions from the vagaries

of industrial unrest like strikes and lockouts, and kept them out of preview of Section 2(j).

The amended definition of ‘industry’ should, therefore, be enforced forthwith.

iii.Definition of ‘workman’

Section 2(s) defining ‘workman’ needs to be amended. Excessive

Protection given to the employees in the higher salary brackets in the organised sector like

Airlines, Bank, Insurance, etc., has not helped to make these employees accountable to the

establishment and the society at large. On the contrary, it has tended to erode the overall

discipline. It is, therefore, suggested that employees receiving a salary beyond `20,000/-,

should be taken out of the ambit of the definition of ‘workman’. Further, Supervisors,

Managers and people holding administrative positions irrespective of the salary limits, should

be taken out from the purview of the definition of ‘workman’.

iv.Notice of change

Section 9-A requires an employer to give 21 days’ notice to the Union before stipulating any

change in the service conditions. This includes, inter-alia changing of shifts, reducing or

increasing the staff strength as necessitated by the business needs or installing new machines.

It has been said that this could cause problems when employees have to be redeployed

quickly to meet certain time bound targets and also could constrain industrial restructuring

and technological upgrading. This operates as a serious bottleneck, in industries, to address

exigencies, such as power shortage or rescheduling work to meet emergency demands.

Therefore, to respond to the market conditions and make full utilization of resources

available, Section 9A needs to be dropped. In this context, the 2nd National Commission on

Labour has recommended that no notice would be required with regard to rationalization,

standardisation dealt with by item No. 10 & 11 in Fourth Schedule. This may be

implemented.

v.Strikes and Lock-outs

India is perhaps the only country, where the requirement of strike notice is absent barring

public utility service. This does not give adequate time to the parties to take pre-emptive

steps and avert the situation through negotiations. A reasonable period of notice of strike is,

therefore, essential. Section 23 of the ID Act to be amended to provide that a 14 days notice

of strike should be compulsory. Further, to democratize the functioning of trade unions, the

Strike Ballot should be supported by at least 75% of the workers working in the enterprise.

Go-slow and work to rule are the most pernicious forms, even worse than strike. The

economic loss caused by go-slow is far graver than strike. It has not yet been prohibited in

our legislation. It should be recognized as a ‘strike’.

vi.Closure of units under NIMZ

The Government has proposed to insert a new Section 25 FFF (1C) & (1D) to extend the

existing provisions for closure of undertakings engaged in mining operation to manufacturing

unit setup in National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ). In this context, a

tripartite discussion has already been held.

While, this initiative is supported, we further submit as under:-

(a)The proposed new Section 25 FFF (1C) sub-clause (a), replace the words ‘same zone’ with

‘same zone or any other zone or in any other manufacturing unit outside the manufacturing

zone owned by the same employer’. The condition of same zone in case of closure of the unit

would be difficult to meet in most cases.

The words ‘same employer’ should be clarified to include the group company also in

the proposed sub clause (a) of Section 25 FFF (1C).

One more sub-Clause needs to be inserted in the proposed new Section 25FFF (1C) -

“The workman is provided an alternative employment by the employer with the help

of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the National Investment and Manufacturing

Zones (NIMZ) with any other employer in the same NIMZ and on the same terms and

conditions from the date of closure of the Unit.”

In the light of above two points accordingly sub-clause D of the proposed Section 25

FFF (1C) should be modified as follows “in case the workman employed in the

manufacturing sector under the NIMZ does not get an alternative employment in the

same zone or any other such zone or manufacturing unit outside the manufacturing

zone owned by the same

Employer or by any other in any other manufacturing zone or unit, the employer will

be liable to pay compensation at the rate of 20 days wages for every completed years

of continuous service or any part thereof in excess of six months”

The following sub-clause could be inserted after 25 FFF (1C)-"Provided that the prior

payment of compensation to the workman shall be a condition precedent to the

closure of any undertaking". This will help both the industry and labour as industry

would be bound to pay before effecting the closure and once the workmen accept the

compensation the disputes would be avoided.

In fact, Government could consider extending such benefits to other units also in

NIMZ which are not engaged in manufacturing.

While closing down the manufacturing unit or a part of it, prior permission of the

appropriate Government should not be required.

vii.Lay-off, Retrenchment and Closure

There has been many amendments in this section . Earlier- any industrial

establishment employing more than 50 persons would have to give 60 days

notice to the appropriate government before the closure of the industry stating

reasons for the closure, 1976- a special chapter (Chapter V-B) was introduced

which made compulsory prior approval of the appropriate government

necessary in the case of lay offs, retrenchment and closure in industrial

establishments employing more than 300 workers, again in 1982- lowered the

limit of the employment size to 100 for mandatory permission before closure

and increased the number of days of notice to 90 days. In 1984, this

amendment was again redrafted and lay offs, retrenchments and closures in

establishments having more than 100 employees had to follow the same

procedures for seeking permission from the government. The inclusion of

Chapter V-B and its consecutive amendments is construed as causing rigidity

in the labour market. This provision means that if establishments employing

more than 100 workers may need to lay off some workers, they have to seek

permission from the government This is hampering industry’s initiative to be

competitive and face global challenges. Foreign investors who are keen on

investing in labour intensive countries are dettered from investing in India,

whereas other labour intensive countries that have a strong export orientation

has benifitted in terms of more foreign investment in their countries and

creation of high quality employment based on exports (Report of Task Force,

Planning Commission, 2001).

This chapter was incorporated during emergency in 1976 to provide for

government intervention even in the rationalization measures where an

establishment employed more than 300 workmen. This limit was further

brought down to 100 workmen by another amendment in 1982. As the

experience goes this has significantly contributed to industrial sickness.

Therefore, removal of Chapter V-B has been recommended by a number of

Committees, including Inter Ministerial Working Group on Industrial

Restructuring (1992) and Industrial Sickness and Corporate Restructuring

(1993), which observed that Chapter V-B has proved detrimental to workers’

interest, hence, should be deleted.

The Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry under the convenorship of Mr.

Mangalam Birla in the year, 2000 had observed that certain global benchmark are necessary

for running the business in the arena of globalisation. It, therefore, recommended allowing

for right sizing by paying compensation. It further recommended seeking prior permission for

closure only in the case where the establishment employs more than 1000 employees.It is felt

that the Government should consider implementing the proposed recommendation in stages

and to begin with the threshold limit of 100 employees be raised to 300 employees. The issue

of compensation may however be discussed. This has also been recommended by the 2nd

National Commission on Labour.

viii.Time Limit for raising disputes and filling claims

To discourage the filing of fictitious claims, a one year time limit should be fixed for raising

any disputes or filing of claims before the Authority for recovery of dues by a workman

under Section 33-C (2) and no belated claims should be entertained by any authority or the

court.

viii.Voluntary Arbitration must be Promoted to Discourage Litigation

Section 10A, providing for Voluntary Arbitration, has failed in its objective.

Arbitration should be promoted as an alternative dispute resolution machinery

to discourage litigation. A panel of expert arbitrators to be drawn up for the

purpose.

ix.Publication of Awards

According to Section 17 of the existing Industrial Disputes Act, only a published award

becomes enforceable on the expiry of 30 days from date of its publication. The requirement

of publishing Award is a mere formality, consuming time and resources. The same can be

communicated to the parties like a Judgment of the Civil Court, which should become

enforceable on the expiry of 30 days after the Judgment, to give adequate time to parties to

file Appeal, if it is necessary.

x.Payment of wages during pending proceedings in higher courts

Payment of full wages to the workmen pending proceedings in the higher court, under

Section 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act is an iniquitous provision as much as the back

wages paid to the employee is not recoverable, even if the award of the Labour

Court/Industrial

Tribunal is quashed by the higher courts. In this context, FICCI fully supports the

recommendation of the 2nd National Commission on Labour to leave the issue on the

concerned high courts or supreme courts to decide the issue on merits of each case.

B.Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970

There is a cry amongst workers that the Contract Labour act is been flouted by employers.

They say that in the event of contract workers being abolished in a firm, they should be

absorbed by the firm (Sundar, 2005). It is said that contract labour allows flexibility and

permits outsourcing but provisions of the Contract Labour Act was never meant to protect

contract labour. First in 1960 and then again in 1972, there was a ruling by SC that if the

work done by a contract labour is essential to the main activity of any industry, then contract

labour in that industry should be abolished. It was this ruling that affected flexibility. In

different judgement in different years, there was a need for clarification whether after

abolition of contract labour whether they should be absorbed as permanent labour in the

industry or not. There was an argument about whether Contract Labour Act should be done

away with. But the problem lies in the fact that decisions on abolition would then slip back to

industrial tribunals from government (Debroy, 2001)

i. Contracting out job work, services or employing contract employees, provides

flexibility, leads to efficient idealization of resources and improves overall

competitiveness.

Successful organisations and big trading companies float subsidiary companies to look after

the peripheral and non-core activities of the organisation to achieve efficiency, cost

effectiveness and optimization of profits and productivity to maintain a competitive edge in

the global arena. It is at the same time promoting employment.

However The workers say that if the government changes the definition under the

Act from ‘perennial and permanent jobs’ to ‘core and peripheral jobs’, then the

employers would take the benefit of it to engage contract workers in only

peripheral jobs as these kind of jobs constitute the most. According to them it

would finally result in employers employing only contract workers and would

‘sack’ all regular workers. Hence, instead of generation of more jobs as promised

by the employers, it would lead to more exploitation and poorer working

conditions. But the employers have a different opinion. They say that more

emphasis should be laid on core activities and peripheral activities should be

contracted out as that would be more efficient and would lead to lesser costs and

for that they should have greater freedom to employ contract workers. So

employers are of the opinion that the Act should be scrapped (Sundar, 2005)

ii. Applicability

iii.The provisions of the Act should not apply to enterprises employing upto 50

workers to provide relief to a sizeable number of MSME units.

iv.Deletion of Section 10

Due to abolition of Contract Labour from one operation to the other, industry is finding it

difficult to engage extra hands to discharge short-term contract including export

commitments; as a result, employment generation is also suffering. Section 10 of the

Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 should, therefore, be deleted to provide

flexibility to engage contract workers.

v.Mode of Payment – Rule 69

The current provision in Rule 69 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central

Rules, 1971 provides for payment of ‘all the wages in current coin or currency or in both’,

should be suitably amended to enable making all the payments to contract workers through

cheque/bank accounts. In this regard, the Government should relax the current KYC norms

for enabling contract workers to open bank account. Another option could be that the

registered address of the contractor may be accepted as address proof. With more than 30

million contract workers, this will help in promoting and fulfilling Government’s vision of

‘financial inclusion’. In this context, the Maharashtra government has mandated that all the

payment to contract workers should be made through bank accounts.

vi.Contractors be treated as a separate establishment

Most of the problems in the existing contract labour legislation arise because of workers

being exploited in the hands of unscrupulous Contractors, despite welfare initiatives taken by

the Principal Employers. A provision be laid down in the Act underlying certain eligibility

criteria (annual turnover or total number of workers) to be fulfilled by the contractors before

obtaining a license from the licensing officer.

The contractor who has met all the criteria and obtained license under the Act be treated as a

separate establishment and shall be fully accountable as Principal Employer for any type of

compliance/liability.

C. Factories Act, 1948

FICCI has examined the proposed amendments to the Factories Act, 1948 at length and also

participated in the deliberations, raising issues and concerns touching upon industry.

FICCI would like to thank the Government for appreciating some of the concerns raised

by us during discussions and also taking some of our submissions on record.

Some of the important points raised during the discussions were not taken into

consideration.The Government may like to reconsider the following:

i.Applicability

The Factories Act, 1948 applies to a manufacturing unit employing 10 workers if the work is

being done with the aid of power, or employing 20 workers without the aid of power.

This limit was fixed more than 60 years back, and since then many safe and hazard free

technologies/processes have been developed and are being used. Yet, even smaller units

employing as low as 10 workers are subjected to the same elaborate and harsh provisions of

the Factories Act, 1948.

In order to escape the rigorous provisions of the legislation, many times the small

manufacturing units employ less than the threshold limit and employment is directly affected.

FICCI therefore recommends that the definition of factory under section 2(m) of the

Factories Act be amended to cover a manufacturing unit employing 20 workers if working

with the aid of power or employing 40 workers if working without power.

Definition of ‘Occupier’

Section 2 (n) ‘Occupier’ shall be a person who has ultimate control over the affairs of the

factory but restricting the definition of ‘Occupier’ only to a ‘Director’ in the case of Private

sector with multiple factories, who may not be stationed at the site of the factory all the

times, puts unreasonable restrictions. Rather the definition of “occupier” need to be extended

to any managerial person vested with the ultimate control of the factory by a resolution of the

Board of Directors.

Annual Leave with Wages (Section 79)

The proposal for reducing the qualifying period of worked days from 240 to 90 days for

availing annual leave with wages will promote unnecessary absenteeism among the regular

workers. However, the proposal can be made applicable for the baadli/casual worker by

mentioning it in a specific clause. In case of regular workers the existing 240 days may

continue.

D.The Shops and Establishments Act

I.Applicability: This Act applies to every shop and commercial establishment. It does not

make any differentiation between a convenience shop, small establishment or the Head

Quarters of a large company. The same rules apply to all. The rules do not cognize for the

size, complexity of business, the market environment or the superior terms and conditions /

benefits provided in large establishments. A threshold limit in terms of manpower employed

is necessary to save entrepreneurial initiative. Therefore, establishments employing less than

10 persons should not be covered by the Shops and Establishments Act.

State level norms: Most establishments have branches in different states. This being a

State legislation, each State is empowered to make their own rules. For example, the

leave provisions vary from state to state, making it complicated for establishments

having branches in different states. Compliance with different set of rules is not

possible since the terms and conditions are same for a category of employees, and the

employees re-transferable from one state to another. It is therefore suggested that

establishments may be given the flexibility of following the rules of any one given

state, preferably the State where the head-quarters exist.

Exemption: Provision related to exemption of those working in managerial,

administrative, supervisory or confidential capacity varies from state to state. In some

states, some of them are exempted, in some states exemption needs to be taken, and in

some states there is no provision for exemption. It is suggested that all managerial /

supervisory / administrative staff and those in similar roles be automatically

exempted. The other suggestion is to exclude all those drawing wages above

Rs.15,000/-.

Daily closing of shops: As per the Act, every shop has to remain closed on every

Sunday, provided the authorities prescribe some other day of the week as the day for

closing. The Act does not cognize for today’s consumer dynamics, which in many

cases mandates 24 hours operations on all days of the year. The employer should

have the flexibility to run the establishment on a continuous basis, as long as the

provisions of working hours applicable for employees are complied with.

Engagement of women: Given the changing nature of employment, especially

in the service sector like Hotels, Hospitals, IT / ITES, Airports, etc. women

should be permitted to work in shifts including night shifts, subject to

prescribed safe-guards being followed.

E. Payment of Bonus Act, 1965

Bonus should be strictly linked to productivity and profitability. Therefore, section 10 and 11

of the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 should be deleted so that there is no upper or lower

ceiling for payment of bonus

F. Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946

i. Introduction of Fixed Term Employment

Fixed term employment is needed to execute time bound projects and short term contracts

where the manpower employed could be dispensed with on the completion of the project.

Recognising this fact, the NDA Government in 2003 had amended Industrial Employment

(Standing Orders) Act, 1946 to introduce ‘fixed term employment’ as one of the categories of

employees in the Schedule. This was however repealed in 2007. The category of ‘fixed term

employment’ may be reintroduced in the Schedule.

G. Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948

i. Applicability and Coverage

During the previous Government’s regime, the ESIC in its meeting held on September 19,

2013, proposed for enhancement of the salary limit for coverage of employees under the ESI

Act from existing limit of Rs. 15000/- to Rs. 25000/- per month, and it was approved by the

corporation despite objections raised by the employers’ representatives.

This extra burden, due to enhancing the coverage, would negatively impact the viability of

the enterprises and would even lead to a negative effect on employment generation.

Moreover, the ESI dispensaries are lacking in important medicines, doctors, paramedical staff

and other important infrastructure, hampering regular and satisfactory services to the

employees.

It is felt that the Government should scrap the proposal.

H. Trade Unions Act, 1926

Firstly, it should be mentioned that there is no nationwide law that recognizes trade

union and also there is no compulsion for the employers to enter into a collective

bargaining so even though there is a right to form an association or form a trade

union, it is not mandatory for an employer to recognize it (Anant et al, 2006).

Secondly, it allows outsiders to be office bearers and members of unions. So workers

who are not directly employed under a particular employer also stand against that

employer in the event of any dispute. The whole idea of outsiders intervening in

disputes between the workers and employers of a particular organization does not

exist in other countries (Nath, 2006). While countries like UK and Japan follow a

democratic way of electing their members by letting the unions consult members

through a process of secret ballot, laws in India follow a different strategy. There is

no representativeness through secret ballots and they also do not hold any strike ballot

before any strike.

The average annual loss of person days due to strikes and lockouts in India is said to

be the second highest in the world (Nath, 2006).

i. Multiplicity of Trade Unions

Multiplicity of Trade Unions promote inter and intra union rivalry, hence, a bane to promote

bi-partism. There are countries like Japan and Australia where ‘one enterprise one union’ is a

benchmark. On the contrary, in India, we have multiple unions in one enterprise, promoting

inter and intra union rivalry adversely affecting production, productivity, industrial relations.

To reduce this multiplicity, only trade unions having membership of at least 25% of

the total work force in an enterprise should be registered. Section 4 of the Trade

Unions Act, 1926 should therefore be amended accordingly.

ii. Recognised Bargaining Agent

Absence of a Recognised Bargaining Agent weakens the process of collective bargaining,

opening scope for litigations. The Trade Unions Act should, therefore, provide for

recognition of the Bargaining Agent.

A union with 51% membership should be recognized as the Sole Bargaining Agent. In case,

no single union has 51%, the top 2-3 unions with more than 25% membership may come

together to form Joint Bargaining Council. A union with less than 25% membership should

not have a right to challenge a collective agreement nor raise a collective dispute. A new

provision in the Trade Unions Act should therefore be inserted suitably.

iii.Trade Union Executive

The number of outsiders in the Trade Union Executive should be restricted to a maximum of

two persons as against 50 percent in the legislation and out of the two top positions of

'President' and 'General

Secretary' at least one post should be held by the internal employee. Section 22 of the Trade

Unions Act should be amended accordingly.

iv. Registration – Trade Union

Registration of a Trade Union should be compulsory and the registration is liable for

automatic cancellation if the Union fails to hold elections every year, and also does not

submit return in time to the Registrar of Trade Unions.

v. Politics and Trade Unionism

Adequate arrangement should be done including amending Section 16 of the Trade Union

Act, 1926 to insulate trade unionism from politics.

I. Labour Laws (Exemption From Furnishing Returns And Maintaining Registers by

Certain Establishments) Act, 1988

The legislation reducing the number of returns and registers in the case of smaller enterprises,

currently applies to establishments employing upto 19 workers and we are given to

understand that there are proposals to enhance the coverage of the legislation to 40 workers.

However, FICCI strongly feels that to provide relief to a sizeable number of MSME units, the

coverage of the legislation should be extended to establishments employing upto 50 workers.

J. Reducing the Number of Registers and Returns

Almost every Act requires the employer to maintain a set of registers, submit periodic returns

and display certain notices near the main entrance of the establishment. The efforts spent to

complete these formalities are not commensurate with the utility of such registers, returns and

notices. Besides, there is a lot of duplication and over-lapping.

It is suggested that maintenance of records and submission of returns should be simplified by

combining the Acts. Already, some States allow for the same, and also some other

flexibilities related to certification, as illustrated below

Tamil Nadu

o Combined annual return for Factories Act, Contract Labour and

Regulation Act Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Wages Act and

Minimum Wages Act.

o Self-certification under Shops and Establishment Act, Minimum Wages

Act, Payment of Wages Act and Maternity Benefit Act for IT / Software

establishments.

o Software establishments exempted from the provisions of opening and

closing hours and holidays under Shops and Establishment Act.

Karnataka

o Combined annual return for Factories Act, Contract Labour and

Regulation Act Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Wages Act, Minimum

Wages Act and Payment of Bonus Act.

o Exemption of establishments in the software industry from the Standing

Orders Act.

Andhra Pradesh

o Self-certification under Factories Act except hazardous industries.

o Definition of core activity under Contract Labour Act. Payment of salaries

to contract workers through Bank or Cheque.

o Exemption from provisions related to daily and weekly hours, opening and

closing hours, engagement of women, holiday wages for software

establishments.

Maharashtra

o Self-certification under Factories Act and Shops and Establishment Act.

Odisha

o Combined muster roll cum wages register under Factories Act, and

Minimum Wages Act.

o Combined Annual Returns under Factories Act, Contract Labour Act, and

Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act and Payment of Bonus Act.

Gujarat

o Combined Annual Returns under Factories Act, Contract Labour Act,

Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act, and

Payment of Gratuity Act, Equal Remuneration Act and Industrial

Employment Standing Orders Act.

Uttrakhand

o All contractors to submit registers on a fixed day before the authorities for

inspection, thus avoiding inspection of principal employer’s establishment.

Rajasthan

o Self-certification under Contract Labour Act, Payment of Wages Act,

Factories Act, Minimum Wages Act, Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of

Bonus Act, Payment of Gratuity Act, Equal Remuneration Act and

Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act. One return for all these Acts.

To conclude, the penal provisions in all these laws need to be revisited and the penalty of

imprisonment, wherever it appears, should be converted into pecuniary fines. This will help

investors to invest freely and without any fear.

Government and Reforms

In the prolonged situation of ‘jobless growth’ and current wake of labour unrest, the

government had come up with certain recommendations to reform labour laws. the Prime

Minister had announced labour reforms with an eye to turning India into a manufacturing

hub. A number of schemes were announced to simplify employment rules and smooth the

way for people to move social security funds when they change jobs.Some of the reforms my

Government are as follows:

The labour ministry has moved a cabinet note seeking approval to merge the 44 existing

labour laws into one act. The new law will be applicable to all establishments in the

organised or unorganised sectors and will ensure minimum wages to all workers.

The push to merge and streamline labour laws comes in the wake of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi's promise to simplify them.

The new law - which is expected to be the centerpiece of the reforms -- will replace the

existing Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal

Remuneration Act, among others

Under it, the fixation and revision of minimum wages will now be left to states -- earlier

it could have been done both the Centre and the states. The states will also be

empowered to multiply the minimum wages depending on how difficult the task is.

Because of this, the states where the working class movements are weaker will be able to

reduce the minimum wage to even below the minimum threshold

It is going to be more difficult to form new trade unions as the new code suggests that a

trade union shall have no more than two outside members while all the others should be

company employees. Further, it does away with Section 23(2) of the Payment of Bonus

Act 1965 which permits the trade unions to legally access audited accounts and balance

sheets of employers.

In a path-breaking move, the new law is expected to bring transgenders into the official

labour force, creating a new category for them.

It will also include provisions to punish errant employers - including a fine of Rs. 50,000

to 1 lakh for employers who fail to pay minimum wages. A fine of Rs. 10,000 will be

imposed on employers who fail to keep records.

In a bid to root out the onerous inspector raj -- or rule of inspectors, which has deluged

employers with paperwork and riddled the system with corruption, the word inspector

will be changed to facilitator.

Contract workers in India will only be recruited through staffing agencies, enjoy working

conditions similar to regular workers, and benefit from periodic wage reviews if a set of

amendments are approved by parliament, the idea is to encourage the engagement of

contract workers primarily through placement agencies. The ministry’s objective is to

protect the interests of contract workers by ensuring that they are not exploited by

employers.However, the ministry is reportedly still undecided on whether or not to allow

placement agencies to charge contract workers an enrolment fee.

Employing children (below 14 years) to be prohibited in all occupations and processes,

with certain limited exceptions.

Recent labour law changes in Rajasthan

The subject of labour being in the concurrent list, the BJP government in Rajasthan led by

Ms. Vasundhara Raje recently proposed amendments to three key labour legislations namely,

the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act (CLRA), 1970; the Factories Act, 1948

and the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947. These changes are supposed to set off a domino

effect as other states are likely to follow suit This would in effect decentralize the Indian

labour market, with 29 states each vying to offer the most lucrative labour regime to attract

industries.

The concrete change in case of Contract Labour Act, 1970 is that it would now be applicable

only in case of establishments employing 50 or more workers instead of the earlier threshold

of 20 workers. Before amendment the Factories Act, 1948 covered those factories employing

10 or more workers (using power) or 20 or more workers (without using power). The recent

amendment increased this threshold to 20 workers (using power) and 40 workers (without

using power). Finally, according to Chapter VB of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947

previously it was necessary to obtain prior government permission to retrench, layoff workers

and closedown factories in an establishment employing 100 or more permanent workers1.

The recent amendment raised the employment threshold to 300 workers .

With regard to the Contract Labour :making Contract Labour Act (restricting the use of

contract workers) applicable to establishments employing 50 or more workers instead of 20

workers would mean that all regular jobs in establishments below 50 workers (but above 20

workers) would be abolished. According to 2010-11 data, around one-third of 2.15 lakh

regular workers in the manufacturing sector of Rajasthan were located in establishments

employing less than 50 workers. This move would bring in insecurity in the lives of these

workers. Moreover, this employer-friendly move would also implicitly encourage the use of

contract workers more liberally in establishments employing more than 50 workers. If one

sees the implications of the amendment to the Factories Act, 1948. Any firm engaged in

manufacturing activity and registered under the Factories Act comes under the organized

segment of manufacturing. Therefore, by increasing the workers’ threshold in establishments

that is required to register under the Factories Act, some of the factories erstwhile registered

under the Factories Act (namely, factories employing 10-19 workers using power and 20-39

workers not using power) would no longer be required to do so. Thus, at the stroke of a pen,

these manufacturing establishments would now be categorized under the unorganized sector.

Consequently, workers in these establishments now being placed in the unorganized segment

of manufacturing would stand to lose on various rights like social security benefits, old age

benefits and other benefits (Chandru, 2014).

Additionally, this would deteriorate the quality of manufacturing sector data. This is because

Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) conducts survey every year only for the organized

manufacturing sector i.e. only those manufacturing establishments registered under the

Factories Act, 1948. Because survey is carried out every year therefore data on organized

manufacturing is considered to be reliable/firm. However, the same cannot be said for the

unorganized manufacturing sector data – since survey in this segment is conducted in five

years interval – and for non-survey years estimates are obtained by updating the survey

year’s figures by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) With the recent amendment, since

some of the erstwhile organized manufacturing firms would be pushed into the unorganized

segment therefore, as things stand, they would not be surveyed every year by ASI – leading

to deterioration of data quality.

Gujarat’s Approach to Labour Laws

The Narendra Modi-led central government's take on labour law reforms and the stance of the

prime minister's home state of Gujarat on the issue seem to be at variance with each other.

The state government has proposed a slew of measures but doesn't want to increase the limit

for the number of workers an industry must have to be able to retrench without prior official

permission (under the Industrial Disputes Act). Gujarat's proposals also differ from those of

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, both ruled by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Easing 'hire and fire' provisions at special investment regions and export-oriented

industrial units. Firms in these will be allowed to retrench without prior permission,

irrespective of the size of the factory

 

Workers in these zones will get wages equivalent to 60 days of work a year, against

45 at present

 

Workers could raise complaints within a year of retrenchment, against 3 years at

present

 

No change in Industrial Disputes Act as proposed by the central government

 

A nominated govt official could apply for compensation for a worker in case of fatal

injury or partial disability at workplace after 90 days of the date of accident

 

A compulsory certification-cum-consolidated annual return scheme for factories,

doing away with the burden of submitting a large number of annual returns

Conclusion

The changes on the whole have to take place at two levels: 1) replace archaic, opaque and

dysfunctional regulations with rational and transparent laws that simplify business processes

to save on time and reduce cost; 2) create new supportive structures that aid business

efficiency. The second type of intervention may not have much to do with legal processes but

may involve large-scale investment in technology and hard infrastructure. In fact, most

advanced streamlined business processes in developed markets, besides being rational and

transparent, are running on heavy doses of technology infusion. The other element here could

be hard infrastructure. For instance, the turnaround time at our ports, a key enabler

for international trade. The average turnaround time at major ports in India is 4.29 days as

compared to less than a day at major international ports like Singapore and Rotterdam. It is

very difficult to change the present situation without making large investments in port

modernisation.

Adopting best practices both from international and domestic sources is going to be critical.

It may appear a little strange that states in India vary enormously as far as adoption of

modern business practices is concerned. For instance the case of e-DharaBhulekh (GIS-

enabled computerisation) initiative in Gujarat that has enabled computerisation of land

records, registration and title mutation process. The initiative has reduced property

registration time from three days to three hours. It now takes just one hour instead of two

days to issue various certificates. The point is that that there already exists great

opportunities for cross-learning even within the country as far as best practices are

concerned.

The new government has already outlined a strategy to improve India's position in the World

Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking from 140 to 50 in the next two years. The most

gratifying part of this initiative is that it is being guided by the Prime Minister's Office, which

lends a sense of urgency into the initiative. But one must realise that such transformation will

perforce be multi-dimensional and extremely complex and require coordination not just

among different departments at the Centre but seek active cooperation from the states as well.

The important element in this transformation could be calibrated and synergistic roll out of

changes with definitive time horizons attached to particular elements of change.

The enormity of the potential economic opportunity of such transformation is well mapped

out in the CII-KPMG Report (Vibrant India: Best Place for Doing Business - An Action

Plan). The change in business environment can potentially create 25 million more jobs and

Rs 8 lakh crore incremental GDP over five years.

Some other measures that can be effective:

Effectively implement an electronic case filing system

• IT-intensive productivity improvement programmes can be implemented, in courts at all the

levels, including district courts. Though the process of e-filing of proceedings has been

initiated in some high courts, this could be the norm, instead of an exception. The process of

e-court service of proceedings has been initiated by the Supreme Court, however it has yet to

permeate to courts at all levels

Increase in the number of courts and tribunals

• Increasing the number of courts alone may not expedite proceedings. There is also a need

to establish special tribunals for resolving commercial cases under various acts for various

levels of monetary limits

• Moreover, the number of judges / presiding officers should be increased and they should be

provided with adequate infrastructure and manpower to facilitate effective functioning.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Instead of filing proceedings in court, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes should

be considered. ADR processes may require further streamlining and they should adhere to the

specified timelines as far as possible.

Enter international treaties

• Subject to certain restrictions in law, a foreign judgment can be enforced by courts in India

only if the said judgment is of a court in a ‘reciprocative territory’. The number of

‘reciprocative territories’ with which India presently has such treaties is minimal. India

should sign treaties with many more countries with which it does business regularly

• The process of enforcement of foreign judgments should be streamlined and definite time

limits should be provided for achieving finality with regard to their enforcement of the same.

Other Antiquated laws should be updated

Updating other certain antiquated laws viz. the Indian Contract Act, 1872, Transfer of

Property Act, 1882, Indian Evidence Act, 1872, Indian Trusts Act, 1882, Indian Penal

Code, 1860, etc. may help them be relevant to the changing times we live in

• Laws pertaining to intellectual property should continuously evolve to be in line with

international trends and standards. Rights and liabilities of licensors and licensees of IP

in propriety technology, in technology, in particular, need to be defined and

appropriately set to enable international commerce to thrive

• Laws should be drafted in simple language so that they can be understood without

difficulty and there is no need to issue clarifications regarding their interpretation. Laws

should be consistent with economic reforms and there should be no conflict of the laws

on the same issue.

The current government and its pro-reform approach over the last six months, can sail

us through such a complex challenge. The improvement in India's business friendliness

is not going to happen in one sudden burst of change, but would rather happen in a

gradual and incremental way seeking to usher in a fundamental cultural change in

government administration. It's not going to be a one-stroke affair as is the case with

policy change. Change will require to be extremely broad-based involving numerous on-

ground stakeholders and could fundamentally redefine the way India works. We have to

be patient. People may not celebrate these changes like the big-bang reforms, but when

accomplished, they can empower India's impatient entrepreneurial class decisively,

which can in turn make India what it deserves to be - an economic powerhouse that not

just lives for itself but gives wind to the sails of the global economy.

References

KPMG Report :Ease of Doing Busniess In India 2014

R.C Datta ,Sil :Contemporary Issues on Labour Law Reform in India: An

Overview

Ahluwalia, M. S. (2001) ‘Report of the Task Force on Employment

Opportunities’ Planning Commission, New Delhi, India.

Anant, T. C. A; Hasan, R; Nagaraj, R and Sasikumar, S. K. (2006) ‘Labou Markets

in India: Issues and Perspectives’ in Felipe and R. Hasan (eds)Labour Markets in

Asia: Issues and Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan,Basingstoke, pp 205-300

Eyck, K. V. (2003) Flexibilizing Employment: An Overview SEED

Working Paper. ILO, Geneva.

Human Rights Law Network : Labour law amendment proposals show

government’s anti-labour direction

Sanhati :Recent Changes in Labour Laws and their implications for the

Working Class

Business Today,Jan 4 2015 : The difficulty of making it easier

Al Jazeera ,Sep 2 2015 : Millions strike in India over government labour

reform

Business Standard ,May 18 2015 : Gujarat's approach to labour law

reforms different from Centre's