Source: The Hindu
- Prelims: Current events of national importance(Different social service Schemes, Labour laws, ILO, etc)
- Mains GS Paper II & III: Social empowerment, schemes for vulnerable sections, development and management of social sectors/services.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- An explosion of a reactor in a chemical factory in the Dombivli Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area resulted in the loss of lives and injuries to workers and people.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
About the labour codes:
- The new set of regulations consolidates 44 labour laws under 4 categories of Codes namely:
- Wage Code
- Social Security Code
- Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code
- Industrial Relations Code.
The Code on Wages, 2019:
- It applies to all the employees in the organized as well as unorganized sector
- It aims to regulate wage and bonus payments in all employments and aims at providing equal remuneration to employees performing work of a similar nature in every industry, trade, business, or manufacture.
The Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2020:
- It seeks to regulate the health and safety conditions of workers in establishments with 10 or more workers, and in all mines and docks.
The Code on Social Security, 2020:
- It consolidates nine laws related to social security and maternity benefits.
The Code on Industrial Relations, 2020:
It seeks to consolidate three labour laws namely:
- The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
- The Trade Unions Act, 1926
- The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
- The Code aims to improve the business environment in the country largely by reducing the labour compliance burden of industries.
Occupational Safety in India
● In India, the statistics concerning industrial accidents and eventually occupational safety are produced by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
● The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020
○ spells out duties of employers and employees
○ envisages safety standards for different sectors
○ focusing on the health and working condition of workers, hours of work, leaves, etc.
● The code recognises the right of contractual workers.
● The code provides for statutory benefits like social security and wages to fixed-term employees at par with their permanent counterparts.
● The code brings in gender equality and empowers the women workforce.
○ Women will be entitled to be employed in all establishments for all types of work and, with consent, can work before 6 am and beyond 7 pm subject to such conditions relating to safety, holidays and working hours.
Inspection of factories(Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes report, 2022):
● Maharashtra(2021): 1,551 of 6,492 hazardous factories were inspected
○ 3,158 out of 39,255 registered factories were inspected, i.e., an 8.04% inspection rate.
● Tamil Nadu: general inspection rate was 17.04% and the hazardous factories inspection rate was 25.39%.
● Gujarat: It was 19.33% and 19.81%, respectively.
● The all-India figure, of 14.65% and 26.02%, respectively
Reasons for the poor inspection rates:
● In Maharashtra, the appointment rate is just 39.34%
○ 48 out of the 122 sanctioned officers were appointed.
○ Gujarat (50.98%) and Tamil Nadu (53.57%).
○ The all-India figure was 67.58%.
● The sanctioned posts relative to the number of registered factories have been inadequate to ensure that every factory is inspected in a year.
● For an all-India reach, each of the 953 sanctioned inspectors would have had to inspect 337 registered factories in a year, in 2021.
● The inspection rates are poor because of the heavy workload of the inspectors.
○ An inspector in Maharashtra must inspect:
■ 818 factories in a year;
■ 589 in Gujarat
■ 532 in Tamil Nadu
■ 499 at the all-India level.
● The prosecution rate, i.e., the number of prosecutions decided as a percentage of total prosecutions (including pending cases) was
○ 6.95% in Gujarat
○ 13.84% in Maharashtra
○ 14.45% in Tamil Nadu.
○ As a result, inspections lose their “deterrent effect”.
● Labour market governance through the labour inspection system is weak and does not perform efficiently.
● Employers call it pejoratively as “inspector-raj”, implying harassment and prevalence of compromising practices such as bribes.
Way Forward
- Reforms of the inspection system are necessary but not of the kind initiated in most States in response to employer criticism.
- Self-certification, randomized inspections, online inspections, and third-party certification have been introduced at the all-India level and in many States.
- These changes violate several articles in the International Labour Organization’s Labour Inspection Convention (081), 1947.
- According to the Convention:
- There must be sufficiently qualified and well-provided inspectors
- They shall enter the establishments freely and without prior notice at any time to secure due compliance of the labor laws, among others.
- Instead of liberalizing the inspection system, governments must ensure a strong labour market governance by implementing the provisions of the ILO Convention.
- Given the fast-paced changes taking place in technology, and the use of hazardous and chemical substances,
- Inspectors can both “inspect” and “facilitate” due compliance of laws by providing suitable advice to employers and unions.
- This is recognised by the ILO Convention.
- If a firm or a trade union does not comply with laws, they are prosecuted by the state.
- There must be a penal system for the enforcers also which will pave the way for complete legal compliance.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
- Account for the failure of the manufacturing sector in achieving the goal of labour-intensive exports. Suggest measures for more labour-intensive rather than capital-intensive exports.(UPSC 2017)
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