Covid-19 & Workers’ Rights

What is the issue?

Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the workers have been abandoned by their employers and by the state tragically.
Labour laws are civilisational goals and cannot be trumped on the excuse of a pandemic.

How the worker’s rights were curbed?

The workers’ right to go home was curbed using the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
No provisions were made for their food, shelter, or medical relief.
Wage payments were not ensured, and the state’s cash and food relief did not cover most workers.
Several workers started walking back home and many died on the way.
More than a month later, the Centre issued orders permitting their return to their home States.
Immediately employer organisations lobbied to prevent the workers from leaving.
Governments responded by delaying travel facilities for the workers to ensure uninterrupted supply of labour for employers.

What do employers need now?

Employers now want labour laws to be relaxed.
Several States have exempted industries from complying with various provisions of laws.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has suggested 12-hour work shifts.
It also wants the governments to issue directions to make workers join duty failing which the workers would face penal actions.
This will take away the protection conferred on organised labour by Parliament.

What is the similarity with the colonial exploitation?

The move is reminiscent of the system of indentured labour introduced through the Bengal Regulations VII, 1819 for the British planters in Assam tea estates.
Workers had to work under a five-year contract and desertion was made punishable.
Factory workers too faced severe exploitation and were made to work 16-hour days for a pittance.
Their protests led to the Factories Act of 1911, which introduced 12-hour work shifts.
Yet, the low wages, arbitrary wage cuts and other harsh conditions forced workers into ‘debt slavery’.

How did the Indian labour laws emerge?

The labour laws in India have emerged out of workers’ struggles, which were part of freedom movement against colonial industrialists.
Our political leaders supported the demands of the workers.
Britain was forced to appoint the Royal Commission on Labour, which gave a report in 1935.
The Government of India Act, 1935 enabled greater representation of Indians in law making.
This resulted in reforms, which are forerunners to the present labour enactments.
The indentured plantation labour saw relief in the form of the Plantations Labour Act, 1951.

How was dignity achieved through democracy?

By a democratic process, Parliament stepped in to protect labour.
Factories Act, 1948 lays down 8-hour work shifts, with overtime wages, weekly offs, leave with wages and measures for health, hygiene and safety.
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 provides for workers participation to resolve disputes through negotiations so that strikes/lockouts, unjust retrenchments and dismissals are avoided.
Minimum Wages Act, 1948 ensures wages below which it is not possible to subsist.
These enactments further the Directive Principles of State Policy.
They also protect the right to life and the right against exploitation under Articles 21 and 23.
Trade unions have played critical roles in transforming the life of a worker from that of servitude to one of dignity.
In the scheme of socio-economic justice, the labour unions cannot be dispensed with.

What are some exemptions?

Section 5 of Factories Act empowers the State governments to exempt only in case of a “public emergency”.
Public emergency is a grave emergency whereby the security of India or any part of the territory thereof is threatened, whether by war or external aggression or internal disturbance.
There is no such threat to the security of India now.
Hours of work or holidays can’t be exempted even for public institutions.
Section 36B of the Industrial Disputes Act enables exemption for a government industry only if provisions exist for investigations and settlements.

Can a State government nullify Central enactments?

Labour is a concurrent subject in the Constitution and most pieces of labour legislation are Central enactments.
The U.P. government has said that labour laws will not apply for the next three years.
Even laws to protect basic human rights have been suspended.
The Constitution does not envisage approval by the President of a State Ordinance.
This makes parliamentary laws inoperable in the absence of corresponding legislations on the same subject.
Almost all labour contracts are now governed by statutes, settlements or adjudicated awards arrived through democratic processes.
These processes accord the labour with procedural equality, which ensures progress of a nation.
LIC vs D.J. Bahadur & Ors (1980) - The Supreme Court said that any changes in the conditions of service can be only through a democratic process of negotiations or legislation.
It rejected the Central government’s attempt to unilaterally deny bonus.

What is the conclusion?

The orders and ordinances issued by the State governments are undemocratic and unconstitutional.
The existing conditions of labour will have to be continued.
In the unequal bargaining power between capital and labour, regulatory laws provide a countervailing balance and ensure the dignity of labour.
Governments have a constitutional duty to ensure just, humane conditions of work and maternity benefits.
The health and strength of the workers cannot be abused by force of economic necessity.
Labour laws are thus civilisational goals and cannot be trumped on the excuse of a pandemic.

Source: The Hindu