14 September 2016

Al Jazeera: Manufacturing discontent: India's workers in crisis

The proposed reforms will make it easier for employers to fire labourers, make it harder to unionise, tougher to take industrial disputes to court and will exempt a large number of small and medium enterprises from existing labour regulations - including health and safety regulations.

They will also put an end to the regime of inspection meant to ensure implementation of laws and set up an alternative mechanism of self-certification in order to protect employers from harassment by corrupt inspectors. [...]

There is, however, strong evidence to indicate that states with labour laws that favour employees are not necessarily less productive.

More importantly, there is little evidence to show that pending reforms - of licensing, land acquisition and bankruptcy laws - and less regulation of the labour market will help the manufacturing sector. [...]

On September 2, a general strike of roughly 180 million workers - possibly the largest reported general strike in history - resulting in an estimated loss of $2.65bn, was a powerful indicator of the stress.

Unsurprisingly the state chose to respond by attempting to suppress the strike in some parts and downplay it in others.

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