AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said that the Government move to bulldoze the view of the trade unions will be resisted. She charged that the NDA Government is not at all consulting the trade unions in working on the changes in labour laws. She denied that there were extensive consultations by the Labour Ministry with the stake holders before finalising the Code.

Most industry bodies welcomed the proposed legislation while unions opposed it. “Government will take no time in changing the threshold through a notification as the intent is to take away all the rights of the workers in the name of simplification of labour laws,” alleged AK Padmanabhan, vice president of Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

Trade unions will hold nationwide strike on January 8 against proposed labour law changes through various codes as part of the government’s efforts to improve ease of doing business in the country and attract more private investments. Unions, however, allege that the codes are part of the government’s move towards massive privatisation and flawed economic policies that have already resulted in severe slowdown in the economy.

RSS-affiliate Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), though, played down the provision for changing the worker threshold via simple notification. “It is merely a face saver for the government as employers would have accused them of bowing down to the pressure of trade unions,” said Vrijesh Uppadhyay, general secretary of BMS. BMS is of the view that changing rules at any stage, even though a notification, will require deliberations. “We will continue to oppose any change in the threshold,” Uppadhyay said.

The Code on Industrial Relations (IR) Bill, 2019 considered to be the most contentious labour law amendments. The central government has withdrawn its proposal to give flexibility to big companies, in terms of manpower, to retrench or lay off workers and shut shop without seeking official consent, a government official said, requesting anonymity.

As a result, another proposal to increase the compensation for retrenched or laid off workers is also not a part of the Bill. However, instead of going for a change in the central law, there are provisions in the Bill which safeguards the amendments brought in by various state governments, giving flexibility to companies to “hire and fire” workers — a move that may be cheered by the industry.

To further help industries in hiring contract workers directly, the government has proposed to introduce the concept of fixed-term employment in the labour laws. The Bill has proposed giving a legal framework for fixed-term employment through which contract workers serving a fixed-tenure will get equal statutory social security benefits as regular workers in the same unit.

Under the present system, firms resort to hiring contract workers through contractors and they argue that it’s a resourceful exercise. Through the fixed-term employment system, companies will be able to hire contract workers directly. “All workers, under a fixed-term contract, will be taken up on depending upon seasonality of industry but will be treated on a par with regular workers. This is the biggest feature (of this labour law amendment).

In 2015, the government had proposed allowing factories with up to 300 workers to retrench, lay off or shut shop without seeking the government’s nod in the Industrial Relations Bill proposed in 2015. At present, factories with up to 100 workers can do so.

Amid severe opposition from trade unions on this proposal, the government decided to shelve it and retain the present threshold. However, doing so would have led to a situation where the labour law amendments of as many as nine states would have been nullified.

That is so because labour falls under the concurrent list of the Constitution. As a result, both the central and state governments are allowed to enact their own legislation. States can bring its amendments with a final approval from the Centre, but if the Centre amends the model Act, it takes precedence over others.

In the past few years, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam have allowed factories with 300 workers to retrench without official sanction. To ensure that all such states do not have to go to their legislative Assemblies to follow the central law, the government has given safeguard measures to ensure that some provisions do not override the changes brought in by the states. (IPA Service)