Elucidation on Industrial Relation Code 2019

Elucidation on Industrial Relation Code 2019

Introduction 

The thriving of any economy relies upon its industry to an enormous degree. The Labour Law covers a spectrum of activities like manufacturing, trading, transporting, exporting, importing, storing, etc. Two major component of industrial work enactment are that it goes for the foundation of an amicable connection between a employee and employer to accentuate the requirement for sound support in the creation of goods and arrangement of administrations and along these lines comprise measures for reinforcing the economy of the country. Additionally, it accentuates that both, the executives and work have a place with a solitary family and should try to improve the way of life of the laborers, giving room for work agreement.

The Indian Labor Law System is described by an assortment of labour legislations. With the regularly expanding debates in the modern area, there is a requirement for labour law reforms. Nonetheless, visit changes drag out perplexity and does little to determine the ambiguities in law. In addition, the labour law in India were established when even the importance of globalization, privatization and liberalization was not surely known by the worldwide society. There were endeavors by the officials to sanction another enactment commonly yet they fizzled.

John D. Rockefeller

 "I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living."

Background

In order to encourage compliance and to make it easier to do business, there have been various suggestions in the past to separate the large number of labour statutes into different aspects of labour law. 

The First National Law Commission on Labour in its 1969 report had suggested cosmetic changes, which include changing the name of the Industrial Dispute Act to Industrial Relations Act so that it would not sound a discordant note and encourage smooth industrial relations. 

Secondly the consolidation of the Trade Unions Act (1923), the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act (1946), and the Industrial Disputes Act (1947) was recommended. But despite the NCL recommendation report, no attempts were made to consolidate and simplify laws. 

After a decade the newly formed Janata Party government introduced the Industrial Relations Bill (IR Bill) 1978 in parliament, but it was later dropped. 

In 1982, the Congress government introduced another IR Bill. But due to no clarity on the attendant legislations to be brought in for the categories excluded from the IDA, that move also failed. 

As early as in 2002 also, the Second National Commission on Labour had suggested the formulation of labour codes similar to those in Germany, Hungary: Poland and Canada. One of the key tasks of the Second NLC was to rationalize the existing labour laws. in 2019

As of late, the Modi regime proposed to consolidate the 44 central labour legislations into four codes, identifying with Industrial Relations, Wages, Social Security, Health and Safety, Welfare and Working Conditions. 

The draft 'Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill 2015' which is an amalgamation of three Acts - The Trade Unions Act, 1926; The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946; and The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947-contains 107 Section and 3 chapters, managing different issues in modern industrial relation relations. The work service has set up a tripartite advisory group with delegates from managers and workers organizations and state government authorities to investigate all worries to audit the Draft Code, before its presentation in the Parliament. Certain arrangements of the Draft Code influence the Freedom of Association under Article 19 (c) and the Right to Strike of the workers as they have now been made unbending. The scientist intends to look at the outcomes of such arrangements and the usage of this Draft Code from the two parts of boss and representative, and will likewise recommend fitting changes by breaking down comparative arrangements of different nations.

Now, when, in 2019, draft on Industrial Relation Code Bill 2019 which was finally passed by the assembly had subsumes :- 

1. The Trade Unions Act, 1926; 
2. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946; and 
3. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

The proposed draft 104 Section, 14 Chapter & 3 Schedules which has covered various issues of Modern Industrial Relation. 

Why Industrial Relation Code 2019 

There are many labour laws to control ventures yet at the same time there is industrial distress the world over. The reasons for unrest may be the inadequate enforcement of labour laws leading to unfair practices like irregular payments, arbitrary deductions from wages, adverse working conditions, unfair recruitment practices, inadequate social security etc. The demonstrations, strikes and lockouts are commonly seen world over. The truth of the matter is that the obsolete and static labour laws are not ready to adapt to the changing business sector situation and in this manner antagonistically influence the procedure of modernization.

This Bill on Industrial Relation Code 2019 accentuates the requirement for current and more straightforward labour laws in India and what results the Draft Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2019 could get in the event that it is executed. The said Code 2019 shall likewise give recommendations to the work lawful framework by investigating the principle highlights of different nations.

In India, there is an assortment of labour laws. The nation has had various enactments directly from the nineteenth century. After Independence likewise, there were many enactments sanctioned to shield the workforce from abuse. Under the Constitution of India, labour is a subject in the simultaneous rundown where both the Central and State Governments are equipped to sanction enactment. Accordingly, various labour laws have been ordered in India taking into account various parts of work, including modern relations, compensation, government managed savings, wellbeing and security, welfare and working conditions. There are over 200 labour legislations in India out of which 44 are Central legislations. Majority of these laws govern only the workers in the organized sector in India. The workforce in the disorderly division don't have workers organizations, no composed activity gets, no paid leave, no standardized savings, no aggregate haggling and no reasonable contest settlement techniques. In a unique setting, laws should be looked into every once in a while. To acquire the labour laws tune with the rising needs of the economy and the work constrain, it is exceptionally fundamental to reconsider and refresh the work laws in India. A holistic and multidisciplinary approach is required to solve the problem relating to labor reforms.

Labour Law reforms not merely mean changing some laws but they should cover modification in labour policies and programmes for the welfare of labour and enforcement of labour provisions. 

"We are at the limit of another time of modern industrial relations wherein work changes ought to give further driving force to advancing the new work culture wherein laborers have a sense of safety and bosses not troubled."

The center issues of labour law changes can be comprehended by changing existing work enactment, authorizing an adaptable leave strategy, right estimating, transforming worker's guilds, consistently retraining  furthermore, refreshing workforce abilities, specialist investment in the board and by great and clean corporate administration.  Keeping all this in mind changes need to be undertaken in the present labour legislations and at the same time bring new legislations.

The labour laws must ensure good working conditions for workers and industrial peace with the changing scenario of the economy. After the implementation of New Economic Policy in 1991 that focuses on liberalization and privatization, most of the Indian labour laws have become outdated because modeled on English provisions they were formulated decades back and unable to cope with changing situation. Moreover, due to inadequate enforcement of labour laws, unfair practices like irregular payments, arbitrary deductions from wages, unsafe working conditions, long working hours, unfair recruitment practices, no adequate security against old age, denying compensation for accident etc. are commonly seen against labour.

Workers non-cooperation and frequent strikes are the other commonly faced problems. Employers do not feel comfortable with complex labour laws. Moreover, there is unnecessary confusion regarding simple common definitions making the laws difficult to interpret. Terms like worker, wages, establishment, appropriate government, etc. have different meaning under different labour laws. There is no need for different definitions of these terms. All these shortcomings and flaws demand Labour reforms to rationalize and simplify the existing laws. The existing laws as has been stated earlier are outdated, complicated resulting in ineffective implementation and negligible compliance which needs reformulation. 

A country like India that is on the verge of taking its place on the world-stage, as a major economy has no option but to design its labour laws that favor global market. It is time to treat labour as an asset and not as a liability in India.

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE DRAFT CODE

1. Applicability
• Whole of India & by notification in the Official Gazette
2. Definitions.
• The Code bill has proposed certain changes to certain important words. The definitions of appropriate government and industrial disputes have been largely retained from the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
•  The first part of the definition of “industrial disputes” in the Draft Code corresponds to the definition contained in Section 2(k) of the Industrial Disputes Act.7 However, the Draft Code makes an addition and broadens the scope of the provision. It states that “in the case of termination of individual worker by way of discharge, dismissal, retrenchment will also be termed as industrial dispute”;
• Section 2(l) defined Fixed Term Employment & gave better framework to it;
• The word “workman” has been changed into gender neutral term “worker” in accordance with the recommendation of the Second National Commission on Labour
• The definition of worker brings in is that it excludes the apprentices from the scope of worker. Previously, apprentices were also included within the scope of workman in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947;
• The definition of 'workman' under Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 specified that “workman” does not include those who employed in a supervisory capacity, draw wages exceeding ten thousand rupees per mensem, the Code Bill removes the specified amount to wages as notified by the central government from time to time;
• This may be viewed in relation to the Second National Commission on Labour’s suggestion that “highly paid jobs” should be excluded from the purview of laws relating to workmen, and included in a proposed law for the protection of non-workmen. As an alternative, the Commission recommended that the Government may fix a sufficiently high cut-off limit of remuneration, beyond which employees would not be treated on the same footing as ordinary workmen.
• However, the Code Bill only creates this condition for employees employed in a supervisory capacity. 
• The new definition of worker leaves certain questions about the nature of some professions ambiguous. The Draft Code should explicitly clarify that the mere fact that a person is a professional shall not exclude him from the definition of worker
• The ambit of “industry” under the Code Bill has not been substantially altered. The Draft Code incorporates the Bangalore Water Supply definition of industry. In this celebrated case, the Court laid down the following definition of “industry”:
• The Code Bill states that "wages" are payable to “a person employed in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment”. The IDA on the other hand specified that wages are payable to a workman. Thus, the Code Bill broadens the scope of whom wages may be paid to. 
• Further, while value of house accommodation, supply of light, water, medical attendance and travelling concessions were included in the definition of wages under IDA, the Code Bill specifically excludes them.
• The Code Bill incorporate the recommendation of the Second National Labour Commission that ‘wages’ and ‘remuneration’ be separately defined, the former to include only basic wages and dearness allowance, and the latter to include other allowances, overtime payment, bonus, gratuity and social security contributions along with wages. This may make the process of calculating additional payments such as bonuses less problematic
• The provision on "lay-off" in the Code Bill corresponds to the first part of Section 2(kkk) of the IDA.
• However, the Code omits the “Explanation” and “Proviso” which were present in the Act. Due to these omissions, Section 2(1)(n) of the Code leaves certain contingencies ambiguous. At what point of a working day can a worker said to be “laid-off”? How many hours should lapse from the time the worker presents himself at work? What happens if the worker is made to work only one shift in a day? What happens if the worker is not given employment even after being asked to present himself during the second half of the shift for the day? The IDA mandated that the workman be paid full basic wages and dearness allowance for that part of the day. With the omission of this guarantee, workmen’s rights may be diluted. These issues should be clarified.

To Be Continue...