Reform employer attitude to avoid sickness

NEW DELHI: The report of the second labour commission is not unanimous. The report of the 10-member committee (including chairman Ravindra Varma) has a 15-page note of dissent from C K Saji Narayanan, a Trichur-based advocate and part-time member of the commission, though other members like G Sanjeeva Reddy and Sunil Shastri have endorsed its findings. The points of differences emerge from Mr Narayanan wanting to subject all closure of units to government clearances, by removing the 100 worker threshold in chapter V B of the ID Act.
Mr Narayanan’s argument is that post liberalisation, the size of units has shrunk and even the existing 100 employee threshold in the ID act is too high. Under existing norms, units employing more than 100 employees are required to seek government clearances for closure. Mr Sinha had announced in the Union Budget 2001 that this threshold would be raised to 1,000, as a result of which over 90% of the industrial establishments would go out of the government approval requirement. Mr Narayanan has argued that the implication of the 300 workers threshold recommended by the Commission would be that most of the large establishments would go out of the purview of government approvals for closure. Quoting an RBI study to point out that management failure is more responsible (65%) for industrial sickness than labour (3%), he had recommended that the remedy for industrial health lies in reforming the attitude and skills of the employer. Further, he has stated that when the committee wants to extend labour laws to all units employing 20 or more workers, it should also recommend the removal of the 100 employee threshold for closure of units.
The other point of difference lies in the commission’s approach to contract labour. The trend should be to progressively convert contract to regular work, he states, apart from recommending that judiciary should be empowered to order the absorption of contract labour as regular employee. Mr Narayanan, who has also favoured 8 hour days and 40 hour week for industrial establishments (36.5 to 40 hour week for commercial establishments), has also argued in favour of composite bargaining agency.