Let there be no confusion, this is a new stage of class struggle in India. In the form of these Acts, an offensive has been launched against the working class and peasantry by a government which the people of the country had voted for power for its second term only a year back. They are now feeling cheated and disillusioned. India’s proletariat has been never earlier offended like this.

However, there is a lesson also for the toiling masses. The lesson is this that at the time of voting to elect a government they need to think in class terms and try to understand which political formation can serve their class interests and which one is to serve the interests of their opponent — the capitalist class.

Let us have a look on the labour law amendments. The NDA government has made anti-working class and pro-employer changes in the labour laws, and has taken steps for codification of existing central 29 labour Acts into 4 Codes — Labour Code on Wages, subsuming four existing labour Acts, Labour Code on Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions subsuming 13 existing labour Acts, Labour Code on Industrial Relations subsuming three existing labour Acts and Labour Code on Social Security subsuming nine labour Acts. Labour reforms constitute one of the agendas of the policies of the neo-liberal economic reforms imposed on the developing countries by the Washington Consensus.

In the chapter on ‘Directive Principles of the State Policy’, the Constitution of India directs that ‘the State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable legislations or economic organisation in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities…”.

But in place of following this direction of the Constitution, the Labour Codes have followed the directions and policy prescriptions of institutions like the World Bank and IMF and the corporate bodies like FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM.

The Codes do not protect and advance the interests of the working class. Rather, some of the rights, entitlements and legal provisions regarding job security, wages and working conditions, etc, which the earlier generations of working class had won after decades of struggles and sacrifices, are being snatched in the name of ‘Labour Flexibility’, ‘Labour Reforms’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’. On the other hand, employers are being given a bonanza in the form of providing them opportunities and legal framework to extract as much as work as possible from the workers and exploit them in any manner they like.

Yet a shameless government has the temerity to say that the labour laws were needed for the welfare of workers. In an overdose of bluff, the prime minister held aloft the adopted Acts as ‘shining examples of minimum government, minimum governance’. He added that the labour reforms would ‘ensure the well-being of workers and give a boost to economic growth’.

The Codes mark a total shift in the allegiance of the Indian state towards capital and employers. The Codes manifest a cruel attack on the Indian working class. The basic thrust of the Codes is to undermine and dilute the provisions in the labour laws that provided some benefits, rights and entitlements to workers; to give unfettered authority of ‘hire and fire’ to the employers, and thus change the relationship of employer and employee into that of master and slave; to snatch job security from most of the workers; to decimate the system of permanent and regular employment, and to legitimise contractual employment as the common and usual system; to relieve the employers from their responsibilities towards safe and healthy working conditions at work places; to facilitate and legitimise exploitation of workers through increased work load, more working hour and less wages.

The Codes will also impose stringent conditions on the forming and functioning of the trade unions as a deliberate policy to emasculate the trade union movement; weaken the collective bargaining powers of the workers and trade unions; make it difficult for workers and trade unions to raise voice and protest against injustice and high-handedness by employers; weaken and undermine the machinery meant for ensuring the implementation of labour laws and inspection of industrial establishments to the extent that the employers to have a confidence that whether they implement/follow the labour laws or not, they have nothing to fear; weaken the penal clauses in case of violation of labour laws and design the dispute/grievance/claims settlement machinery to suit the interests of employers.

The industrialist bodies like the FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM are celebrating the anti-labour reforms and calling them as ‘big bang reforms’. They had invested much — both money and resources — in helping this government to capture power at the Centre. They are gung-ho that the government has displayed its gratitude and served them well. On the other hand, the working class of the country is shocked and hurt since many of the rights and benefits that their several generations had secured after countless struggles and sacrifices, and got enshrined in labour laws, have been snatched.

The employers have reasons to rejoice that the amended labour laws have ushered in a ‘fire at will’ culture in the country and have exempted three-fourth of country’s factories from norms meant to protect workers against arbitrary dismissals or punishments or discrimination in promotions and transfers. Till now, only factories with less than 100 employees were exempt from following these norms. The Industrial Relations Code has extended the exemption to all industrial establishment with less than300 employees. Now the factories with less than 300 employees will not need government’s permission to sack workers. Nor will they need to follow the state governments’ rules on probation, promotion, or transfers, or those governing notices, punishments, inquiries and punishment for misconduct. Thus most of the workers have lost whatever job security they had till now. A regime of ‘fire at will’ has been legally formalised.

The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders Act), 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 provided substantial job security to workers in establishments with more than 100 workers. The employers could not punish or dismiss workers according to their whims because of the law and various court judgments. The IR Code has exempted almost three-fourth factories from its purview and provided employers the liberty to dismiss and punish workers at will. The exempted employers will be not only free to sack the workers whenever they want but will also have liberty to decide about their service conditions. This will change the relationship of employer and employee into that of masters and slaves.

The IR Code allows the government to increase this threshold. This means that the government can oblige any establishment by increasing its threshold. This provides them a space for quid pro quo.

It is noteworthy that this most contentious issue – the increase of threshold for an establishment to seek government permission before closure, lay-off or retrenchment from units that employ 100 workers to those employ 300 workers — was not there even in the 2019 version of the IR Code which was scrutinised by the parliamentary standing committee, but has been introduced now.

The IR Code provides that the central government or state government may exempt any new establishment or a class of new establishments from all or any provisions of the Code in public interest. Since time has not been specified, it can be done for any length of time. One can easily understand that in the name of encouraging industralisation/creation of employment opportunities/inviting investment the government will oblige industrialist through this provision and the other provision of extending threshold of 300 workers. This will deprive a further big chunk of workers from job security and other provisions including forming a union.

The Codes provide for exempting any new industry from all provisions of the Code on occupational health, safety and working conditions including adequate lighting and ventilation; leave and maximum working hours; and welfare measures; exempting any new industry from the provisions of IR Code governing working conditions, trade unions, retrenchment, lay-off, dispute resolution, etc, empowering the governments to raise the threshold (establishments employing over 300 workers) to any higher number of workers for lay-off as well as social security and giving them discretion for changing safety standards.

These provisions have been deliberately made to create a ‘labour laws holiday’ environment for new industries in the name of attracting new investment and FDI and creation of jobs.

The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 and The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders), Act, 1946 had the provision for lowering the threshold which meant that if the government desired so, the provision can be used to include more workers in the ambit of job security. Those Acts, however, didn’t have provision for raising the threshold. But the IR Code has provision for raising the threshold which meant that if the government desired so, the provision can be used for excluding more workers from the ambit of job security. However, the IR Code does not have provision for lowering the threshold.

Practically, there is nothing in the Codes to benefit the unorganized workers. The claim that every unorganized worker will get an appointment letter is a hollow slogan. There is nothing in the Codes to ensure it. The penal provisions have been diluted in the Codes. The Codes even exempt the employers from any penal provisions if they were able “to prove that they had used due diligence in enforcing the execution of the Code and it was the other person who had committed the offence without his knowledge, consent or connivance”.

The fact of the matter is that whatever penal provisions existed in the labour laws, even those never had an impact on employers. To further diluting them de facto means almost nullifying them. The Supreme Court had noted: “If violations of labour laws are going to be punished only by meagre fines, it would be impossible to ensure observance of the labour laws and the labour laws would be reduced to nullity. They would remain merely paper tigers without any teeth or claws.”

The Factories Act, 1948 defined any manufacturing unit as a factory if it employs 10 workers (and uses electricity) or 20 workers (without using electricity). The Labour Code on Occupational Safety and Health has raised this threshold to 20 and 40 workers respectively. What is the objective of raising this threshold? Nothing but to exclude a big number of workers from the coverage of the Code.

Restrictions have been imposed on strikes. The restrictions which the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 imposed only in respect of strikes in public utility services have now been imposed on workers of all establishments. (IPA Service)