BENGALURU: Labour unions are up in arms against the amendments to various labour laws passed by the Karnataka cabinet on Thursday. The cabinet deemed the amendments to the Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act and Contract Labour Act a necessity to ensure 'ease of doing business' but labour unions say it's a violation of labour rights, leaving workers in the lurch during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Karnataka cabinet approved an ordinance allowing factories or industries with less than 300 employees to shut down without the government's approval with an amendment to Section 25K of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The 'Industrial Disputes and Certain Other Laws (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinance' will increase the threshold of employees as mandated in the Industries Disputes Act up to which a firm can be exempted from seeking the government's approval before shutting down or laying off labour from 100 to 300.
"These decisions show that the government is only for industries and not for labour laws. These are retrograde decisions. Such changes are a violation of labour rights and allow factories to get away with firing workers especially at a time when thousands of workers have not been paid for months owing to the lockdown. The govenrment has failed in providing support for labourers who may be left unemployed. Such laws will also allow industries to show each unit as an independent factory and lay off workers without having any fear of repercussions," said Maitreyi Krishnan, State Committee member of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions.
The Karnataka cabinet also amended the Contract Labour Act via an ordinance to increase the worker threshold. "We have increased the limit on workers from 10 to 20 in units that use power and from 20 to 50 in units that do not use power," said JC Madhuswamy, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister. This will allow factories that hire less than 20 contract workers for electrified units and less than 50 contract workers for non-electrified works to function without government nod or inspections. In another amendment to the Factories Act, the cabinet has increased the limit on overtime per quarter to 125 hours instead of the existing 75 hours.