Skip to main content

Onus on States to Push Labour Reforms

By

Lacking majority in RS, the Centre relies on states to bring in changes in labour laws

The onus of driving big-bang labour reforms, which could bring India's hiring norms in kilter with flexible global practices, rests with the states now as the Centre lacks the required Upper House majority to push such a bill, and isn't keen on an encore of the experience on the land acquisition law.

Furthermore, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in power in a number of big states, the New Delhi believes it will be easier to drive legislative changes in labour laws at the state level to enhance the ease of doing business.

A senior government official told ET that the Centre is not immediately keen on bringing labour law amendments to Parliament. “Some work has been done on codifying labour laws and reducing 44 legislations into four codes. However, in terms of progress on legislative action, it is still an issue whether it will pass the muster in Rajya Sabha, because NDA by itself does not have the numbers, and, therefore, there is some hesitation,“ the official quoted above said. He was responding to a question on the delay in bringing the labour codes, which are ready, to Parliament for discussions.

The labour ministry is ready with the two labour codes, one on wages and the other on industrial relations, for several months now. The ruling NDA had attempted to steer changes in the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) land acquisition law under pressure from states, but the lack of adequate numbers forced it to backtrack. Amendments are now under the consideration of a joint parliamentary committee.

The BJP-led NDA government, after coming into power in 2014, had brought in nine main amendments to the 2013 legislation through an ordinance, and subsequently as
part of a The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015. However, due to stiff
opposition from various political parties, the government agreed to drop most of its contentious amendments to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, bringing back the crucial clauses related to consent of affected families and social impact assessment (SIA).

The official said that the way forward for labour reforms in the country is through states.“We are now encouraging other states to take the Gujarat approach and at least bring in flexible labour laws in the special economic zones. Once the principle has been established through Gujarat's reforms, the Centre will give the permission. If we have three-four states doing this, competitive pressure will build on the others to act,“ he said.

The Economic Times New Delhi, 11th May 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more