The Unprecedented Changes To India’s Labour Laws = Social Chaos? – By Payaswini Upadhyay

The decision by various states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra to amend certain labour law provisions has elicited two diametrically opposing views. On the one hand are those who argue that businesses today largely employ temporary workers. And so, the dilution of labour laws that mostly apply to permanent workers won’t make much of a difference. And that the existence of these laws only served the cause of labour inspectors. 

On the other hand, activists have strongly condemned this assertion saying that presence of stringent laws has proved to be a powerful tool in the hands of workers to negotiate for better wages, work conditions etc. And attributing lack of business activity to stringent labour laws is an over-simplification of the problem.

The intent is to signal to industry that labour laws won’t come in the way of business activity, experts BloombergQuint spoke with said. Perhaps why Madhya Pradesh has amended certain labour laws only for new industries that start production for the first time in the next 1,000 days.