Shramev Jayate – An Interrogation
and Exhortation
Prof. K.R. Shyam Sundar
XLRI
The main message that came out of the Prime Minister's speech
is that by shying away from labour law reforms we will not be serving the
interests of labourers and only through labour reforms could the government
seek to serve their interests. The real
target of benefit of labour law reforms and governance through increased
investment and employment is the blue collar workers.
The labour law and governance
reforms announced by the government are a mixed bag. The portable EPFO
accounts management (through Universal Account Number) was a long pending one
and in the era of electronic management this was expected since long and it has
been delivered a little too late in the day.
Nonetheless, better late than never.
The press reports suggest that this scheme will cover the employees in
the organized sector. While this is a welcome administrative
rationalization move and would hugely benefit foot-loose employees who shift
from one firm/region to another, the key issues that is not addressed relates
to the vulnerably placed workers in the organized sector: it is well-known that
the contractors often collect the contributions towards the social security
funds and yet do not deposit them with the respective organization; further,
these workers are highly foot-loose by the very nature of their jobs and the
portability scheme should cover these workers foremost. Policy clarity on this vitally important
issue is expected from the government.
The second issue concerns the
e-governance which not merely minimizes the governance but also if properly
coordinated and is efficiently functional would boost the efficiency of governance
of industrial relations. The Unified Labour Portal or Shram Suvidha seeks
to ensure a transparent and accountable labour inspection system. Both are welcome objectives. But there are some vital concerns. The Government of Maharashtra introduced
first a pilot project and later an universal project called, Maharashramm, an
e-governance initiative with a lot of fanfare and it sought to cover all the
major players in the labour market governance via electronic methods, viz. the
government officials, the business firms and the workers. The system envisaged covered both width and
depth of coverage. It also had a
financial inclusion of workers by providing for wage payments through bank
accounts and creating Business Correspondents who would operate via
e-tools. Maharashramm was managed by the
private service provider, viz. Goldyne Technoserve. It started in big-bang
manner and later developed some problems.
Presently the site is non-functional due to the litigation process. This creates serious concerns as without
private providers these e-governance schemes could not be implemented. Further, without efficient telecom services
no e-governance system however well-conceived can ever become successful – for
example, the salary and pension in administration in Maharashtra often get
stuck because of jamming and hanging issues.
While the medium and large scale
establishments will have the wherewithal to manage e-governance mechanisms and
they powerfully lobby the government, the micro and small establishments whose
owners are often uneducated and even illiterate and performing multiple
services in the establishment would find it difficult to cope up with the
e-governance mechanisms. The
e-governance assumes the adequacy of supply of electronic equipment with the
labour inspectors which assumption is not well founded.
The so-called inspector-raj reform
is more a "signalling" to the prospective investors, especially after
Mr. Modi's visits to Japan and the U.S. of the government's resolve to move ahead
on the reform path. The potential investors have almost cultivated a
“habit” of submitting labour law and governance reforms as a part of their
interactions with any dignitary who interact with them.
India, a founder member of ILO has
ratified only 43 ILO Conventions out of 189 and four out of eight Fundamental
and Core ILO Conventions. The Core ILO
Conventions that India has not ratified relates to child labour and freedom of
association and collective bargaining.
The non-ratification of ILO Core Convention relating child labour
becomes quite embarrassing especially when Mr. Satyarthi has been honoured with
Noble Prize for Peace (along with Pakistan citizen), whose crusades against
child labour were recognized. While
labour law reforms concerning the organized sector though contestable are
welcome, the blatant ignorance of the vital concerns relating to the vulnerably
placed workers and people does not enhance the Shramev Jayate sloganeering.
India has ratified ILO Convention on
Labour Inspection, 81 (1947) which requires well-equipped and sufficient labour
inspectors to inspect any undertaking at any time and without prior
authorization. However, the governance
reforms including those announced by the Prime Minister, viz. centralization of
labour inspections, dictation of labour inspections from above and time
management of labour inspections do violate the letter and the spirit of the
ILO Convention which India has ratified.
Controlled and command performances defeat the very objective of labour
inspection.
The good reform measure has been to
lighten the administrative load on the micro and small establishments (MSs) which
clearly require least government intervention in terms of scrutiny and most
government support especially support in terms of skill building as quit rates
are highest in this sector. These micro and small establishments often "feed"
the large establishments by providing unofficial apprenticeship scheme of
training workers and seeing them going away to large establishments where these
workers are willing to "queue" up for permanent vacancies.
To labour researchers, it is the
skill deficit or mismatch in skills that hurts more the competitiveness of the
companies rather than the so-called rigidities created by the labour laws. Hence, the skill building support measures
announced by the government will go a long way to address the critical skill
related issues and they are particularly welcome given the onset of demographic
dividend.
Mr. Modi's exhortation about the
respect to blue collar is a timely reminder about the dignity of labour. The
government also needs to step up its programmes to greatly reduce the child
labour, wipe out the bonded labour and assure freedom of association and
collective bargaining rights to all kinds of employees. The slogan Shramev Jayate will achieve
meaning if the workers, the vulnerably placed fee secure and are confident of
state support in a comprehensive manner in their efforts to nation
building. This is the key to Shramev
Jayate.
Prof. K.R. Shyam Sundar
Professor, HRM Area
Jamshedpur
krshyams@xlriac.in
