Madhya Pradesh recently allowed employers to increase working hours in factories from 8 hours to 12 hours, when opened after the lcokdown.
With many other states also considering changes in labour law, the interests of labourers and workers are at stake.
What are the recent decisions?
Madhya Pradesh has embarked on a plan to give a boost to industry by allowing units to be operated without many of the requirements of the Factories Act.
The working hours may extend to 12 hours, instead of eight. It has allowed up to 72 hours of work a week in overtime.
It appears the State has used Section 5 of the Act, which permits exemption from its provisions for 3 months.
This was done in the hope that the Centre would approve such suspension with extension for at least a thousand days.
However, this exemption can be given only during a ‘public emergency’, defined in a limited way as a security threat due to war or external aggression.
Uttar Pradesh has approved an ordinance suspending for 3 years all labour laws, except a few ones.
The exemptions include laws relating to -
the abolition of child and bonded labour
women employees
construction workers
payment of wages
compensation to workmen for accidents while on duty
Reports suggest that several States are following this example in the name of boosting economic activity.
Will the Centre give its consent?
Changes in the manner in which labour laws operate in a State may require the Centre’s assent.
The Centre is already in the process of pursuing a labour reform agenda through consolidated labour codes.
So, it might not readily agree to wholesale exemptions from legal safeguards and protections the law now affords to workers.
What are the larger concerns?
The country’s response at the pandemic time in protecting the most vulnerable sections and vast underclass of labourers is largely upsetting.
The emphasis in the initial phase was on dealing with the health crisis.
But the consequence was the creation of an economic crisis.
The revival of business and economic activity after weeks of forced closure is indeed a key objective to be achieved.
However, it is amoral for the States to address this by granting sweeping exemptions from legal provisions on protecting labourers and employees.
Factories are relieved of even elementary duties such as providing drinking water, first aid boxes and protective equipment.
Requirements such as cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, canteens, restrooms and crèches are suspended.
With the country into the third spell of the national lockdown, the migrant workers' conditions call for immediate government intervention.
Given this, it is fair for the Centre to not allow exemptions from welfare laws for workers mooted by States.
