Labour Rights under the Indian Labour Legislations: A Bird’s Eye View on the Protection of Rights of Labourers under the Recently Introduced Labour Code of India

Abstract

India, one of the most labour-intensive countries of the world, has finally taken a leap of faith and codified 44 of its national-level labour laws into four broad codes on ‘wages’, ‘industrial relations’, ‘social security’ and ‘occupational safety and hea lth’. This has triggered a longstanding controversy between the stakeholder and the government as, according to the government the existing labour laws have created hindrances to the Indian manufacturing sectors as well as it discourages foreign companies to set up their respective wings within the country. This in turn amounted to huge loss to the country’s income and revenue. The Code has received criticism from trade unions and activists however, it has been welcome on the ground that the Code would help in reviving India’s economy involving two-fold benefits providing to the workers as well as to the industrialists. It has been argued that India’s existing labour laws as remnants of an archaic past considering them as ineffective for workers and burdensome on the employer and should be dismantled. In the above backdrop, the pertinent questions that remain to be examined are whether the recent drastic changes in the various labour laws are going to fulfil the purpose fostering the economic development of the country at the cost of various rights of the labours? Whether such steps on the part of the governments are in consonance with the constitutional provisions? Whether the reformations in labour laws would help the government’s initiative to implement the liberalisations concept attracting the foreign investors? Do we need a sustainable strong manufacturing sector? This paper has focused on the pros and cons of the recently introduced Labour Code in the light of above questions and made an attempt to dig out whether the Code would be successful in protecting the rights of the labourers?