Labour law: Govt may exempt firms with up to 40 staff

The amendments now proposed to the law aim to extend this relief to a greater number of companies by raising the employee base limit from 19 to 40, meaning companies with 40 employees or less. More importantly, it is proposed to expand the basket of labour laws for which companies can use a unified compliance form, from the current nine to 16.

The amendments would also allow companies to maintain records and registers in computer, floppy, diskette or on any other electronic media as well as file the same through e-mail. First introduced in 2005 in the Rajya Sabha, the amendments had been referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which called for more discussions to be held with both employers’ and employees’ groups to arrive at a consensus on some of the Bill’s provisions.

The need for building a consensus on this amendment Bill was taken up at the last meeting of the Indian Labour Congress in April this year where it was pointed out that trade unions “in various fora criticised any attempt to dismantle inspector raj” as according to them, “this would compromise the interests of vulnerable workers”.