Bengaluru: The Deccan Herald has reported that the Karnataka Government is mulling the elimination of surprise inspection of factories. This will help the factories prepare for the inspection and eliminate unnecessary litigation arising out of noncompliance noticed during the surprise inspections. Surprise inspections also leave the factories scrambling all their resources to cater to the inspection, opening up vulnerabilities in other areas.
The central government is working on combining the almost 45 acts into 4 labor codes. “We hope that 2020 will be a year of labor reforms. The four codes will be a reality in 2020. The codes will safeguard the interest of workers and employers. We have tried to strike a balance between workers’ as well employees’ rights,” Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar told Press Trust of India. “The process of labor reforms began after the 2nd National Labour Commission gave its report in 2004. But the process was expedited in 2014,” Gangwar said. “We introduced the four codes in Lok Sabha after many tripartite meetings (taking unions and employers on board). Besides we sent all four codes for scrutiny by standing committee,” the minister said.
According to the recommendations of the 2nd National Commission on Labour, the ministry is codifying existing 44 central labor laws into four codes by simplifying, amalgamating, and rationalizing the relevant provisions of the legislation. The Labour Code on Wages has already been approved by Parliament. The law will be implemented after framing rules under the code. The remaining three codes are sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. “The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019, was referred to the standing committee in October this year. Earlier this month, we also sent The Industrial Relations Code, 2019 and Social Security Code to the committee for scrutiny to the panel,” Gangwar said.
“We are going beyond codification of the labor laws. In order to ensure effective implementation of labor laws at the grass-root level for workers as well as employers, we have planned a new portal ‘Santusht’.” The portal would not only monitor the work of different bodies and wings of the ministry implementing labor laws but also give credit and discredit to officials responsible for implementing them in an upright manner.
The Codification was basically to amalgamate and categorize the existing laws – a really good initiative as there are duplicities and overlapping provisions – but while doing so, one must not be surprised if some troublesome clauses are removed or replaced. The fine print is the key as in the Government’s budget document or in an insurance policy.
In meanwhile COVID19 happened and most states are scrambling to get their economic houses in order by tweaking investment rules, loan approvals, Liquidity provisions, and of course scrapping, modifying, or tweaking labor laws. The Karnataka Government has already modified the Standing orders to provide for Fixed tenure workmen promoting the direct hiring of workmen for short projects – This will eliminate manpower contractors from the system and benefit both employment generation and employee benefits as they will be able to get the benefits a regular employee gets, albeit for the short term.
This new move is part of that ongoing process to ease the process of business. Inspection is continuous as there are as many as 12 acts in force mandating inspections. These include compliance of rules pertaining to pollution, safety, minimum wages, legal metrology, bonus, wages, PF, ESI, and gratuity among others.
According to the Deccan Herald, the proposed reform is likely to be implemented before January 31, 2021. The DH article says that “…The reform suggests prior inspection notices to industries and inspection reports to be uploaded within 48 hours of the inspection.” “The move is aimed at preventing unnecessary litigations. Prior notice to factories will be entered into the registry. It will help industries to prepare themselves with proper records and helps us avoid a lot of litigations,” a top labor department official told DH.
One other important reform being contemplated is the allocation of inspectors, the article says. Inspectors will be allocated centrally and no inspector will be assigned to the same factory in subsequent years.
But as expected, the reactions are a contradiction. The Deccan Herald quotes Sudhakar Shetty, former president of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry as saying, “Surprise inspection was a hurdle for the industry. I think the move by the government is coming at the right time.” On the other hand, Maitreyi, an advocate with Manthan Law, working with trade unions told the DH “The need of the hour is to strengthen laws and the proposed change only makes workers further vulnerable. This is also in violation of the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947.”
