The amendments to the
Factories Act, the Apprentices Act and the Labour Laws (exemption
from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments)
Act were approved by Cabinet last night.
The Cabinet has given its approval (for the amendments). The amendments
would be beneficial for the labourers," Labour Minister Narendra Singh
Tomar said here today. "We expect that it will be tabled in the present
session of Parliament," he added.
Among the changes made in the laws are
relaxing of certain norms to enable women to work in night shifts, doubling the
provision of overtime from 50 hours per quarter to 100 hours in some cases and
from 75 hours to 125 hours in other work of public interest and others.
According to Minister
of State Labour and Employment Vishnu Deo Sai, the amendment to the Factories Actwas to make
it more compatible to the requirement of the present scenario in industrial
sector. However, trade unions critisized the "hasty, employer-friendly
amendments" in the name of development and are likely to meet soon to
decide action programme against it.
"Under the cover of so-called gender
parity, the amendments said that women can work in night shifts. We feel that
in the Indian context, the time has not come for us that we can leave our
sisters and daughters so that they work in night shifts. We are against that.
Congenial atmosphere is still not there so as to let women work the night
shifts," said AITUC Secretary D L Sachdev.
Talking about the provision for doubling the
overtime hours from 50 per quarter, he said that through this, more liberty is
being given to the employer.
"While AITUC is not opposed to
simplification process per se in maintaining registers and sending returns for
each Act for small and medium enterprises, it opposes increasing the ambit of
such industries from 10 to 40 workers. It should have been done
gradually," he said.
On Apprentice Act, no provision has been made
for monitoring breach by provisions of the employers, he said.
According to an amendment proposed in the
Apprentices Act, it will now not be compulsory for an employer to absorb 50 per
cent of the apprentices as permanent employees.
Another amendment to the Act will enable to
add 500 new skills and vocations in the industry, including those related to
the IT sector. One of the amendments to the Factories Act states that now
employees can avail leave with pay after completing 90 days in job. The earlier
stipulation was 240 days.
