As factories are cranked back to life after weeks of lockdown, Indian states are diluting labour laws. A key change made by at least seven ...
As factories are cranked back to life after weeks of lockdown, Indian states are diluting labour laws. A key change made by at least seven states is to raise maximum working hours from 48 to 72 a week. In most cases, these rules, notified from around mid-April, will stay in place for three months. Uttar Pradesh has suspended most labour laws for three years.
The Centre had been mulling over an increase in working hours after industries were hit by the lockdown to contain the coronavirus. But it seems to have been left to the states to quietly introduce the contentious change.
In effect, the states have junked one of the defining rights of workers in an industrialised world: eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what you will. It seems to be an act of amnesia. Historically, pandemics in India have prompted workers to demand more rights instead of settling for less.
‘Exempt’ from the Factories Act
Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have made sweeping changes, suspending a number of labour laws. Uttar Pradesh has magicked away the Factories Act of 1948 altogether for three years. Other states issued notifications which “exempt” workers from specific provisions of the act.
The law caps working time at 48 hours a week...
