Labour Law Relaxations: Workers In Thrall

Rahul M R, Arjun S Mohan

“In actual history, it is a notorious fact that conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder, in short, force, play the greatest part”

— Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I

Article 39 (c) of the Indian Constitution, under the Directive Principles of State Policy, asserts that “the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment” (Constitution of India). Unfortunately, the major problem of our economic sphere is not still addressed. A survey conducted by Business Insider in 2018 confirms that about 77% of the nation’s total wealth is accumulated in the hands of 10% of the population (Business Insider, 2018). If this is the condition, what is the possibility of welfare of the commons? Isn’t it unethical and ironical to widen the gap during the current crisis? 

Primitive accumulation of capital, a Marxian doctrine, specifically points out the reality behind the continuous process of concentrating money in the few hands. According to Marx, it is the character of a liberal economic tradition to carry on the agglomeration of surplus in the hands of the investor in an increased growth rate (Marx, Capital, 1867). When the money invested transforms into the capital, commodities created by the labourers reach the market. The surplus thus gained turns into profit for the owner, salary for the workers and investment to capital itself. It is the sweat of the workers that act as the centric force of producing these returns. From the initial stages of capitalism itself, this process caused a divorce of workers from the means of production and accumulation of more proletariat in proportional to the accelerated increase in surplus-value seemed necessary. It is also essential to continue this as a cyclic process for a perfect capitalist system, in turn for a healthy liberal economy.

The maintenance of liberal economic systems requires such violent expropriations which are diluted as common things for ‘peaceful’ existence. Therefore, establishing a social dependence of workers on the capitalists is indispensable for the system (Marx, Capital, 1867). For this, self-perpetuating laws are created against the labourers. Finally, all these factors would result in a big financial division between the working class and the capitalist class. It is a global economic phenomenon and the welfare of people isn’t complete unless the state addresses the exploited ends of this socio-economic system. Considering the current crisis, it is inevitable for a state to manage the gap between the rich and the poor as the most affected ones belong to the deprived sections of the economy.

Background 

The central government is about to dilute the existing 44 laws in the central list into 4 labour codes. When the code seems satisfactory on the surface level, state governments had already announced the withdrawal of several provisions in labour laws. Earlier, labour laws ensured the health and welfare of the workers with an emphasis on conditions like fixed pay for a fixed time, fixed pay for extra time, and once in a week holiday with pay. It is disheartening that states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have decided to withhold these labour-friendly provisions of the Factory Act. This way, state governments are trying to attract investors, but they forget the personal prosperity of the building blocks of the economy, the workers.

Among them, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh stand prominent in having suspended labour laws. In Madhya Pradesh, maximum working hours are increased to twelve hours from early eight. Contractors with fifty labourers are now out of registration and there is no factory inspection for the next three months. In Gujarat, the Minimum Wages Act, Industrial safety rules and Employees’ Compensation Act are currently lifted (Chronicle India, 2020). Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state brought the ordinance to freeze all the labour laws related to industrial disputes, occupational safety, working conditions, trade union interventions, contract workers and migrant workers for the next three years and spared only four labour laws and a provision of another Act related to women and children (The Wire, 2020).

This nullification of labour laws could keep the labourers at the convenience of the capitalists. As there are no inspections, a fear of any government intervention is overruled. In this way, the safety of the workers is compromised, leaving their lives in absolute peril. The increased working hours could decrease the number of working men needed, and again increase the rate of unemployment. These relaxations, aiming at investors, will induce competition among the states to reform the laws further. Sooner, we will witness a de-civilisation process of the labour community, in which they are subjected to severe exploitation.

A Rear-View of Legislations

When we go through the legal history of labour codes in India, Bengal regulations of 1819 take the first position which authorised the plantation owners’ power over their workers. The imperial demons saw labourers as mere machines and continued their triumph by passing more barbaric and inhuman laws. It reached its extremity when the Transport of Native Labourers Act was passed in 1863 which included a horrific clause that enabled an employer to detain his employee if found escaping. The Factory Act of 1911 was the first labour friendly law passed which delimited the working time to twelve hours. Later, the Government of India Act, 1935 and Plantation Labour Act 1951 envisaged the workers with respectable codes.

The waves of Bolshevik revolution created a new consciousness among the labourers and a series of strikes and protests led to the Trade Unions Act of 1926 which was the first step in the formation of trade unions. Earlier, the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 demanded compensation for the workers injured in the factory premises. Bombay Industrial Act of 1942 was a later development which ensured transparency for the employee to know the terms and conditions of the employment. Trade Disputes Act of 1929 and Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 upheld the view that a worker couldn’t be simply fired at the will of the employer. Again, the Minimum Wages Act passed in 1948 legislated the fixed wages concept and the amendment of Factory Act in 1948 guaranteed safer workplaces for the labourers.

The Maternity Act of 1961 was progressive in granting 90 days of paid holidays for pregnant women with many other benefits.  In 1976, the Equal Remuneration Act insisted on equal wages for men and women. After the 1990’s, the liberalisation policies started influencing the labour laws. For example, the Trade Unions Act in 2001 restricted the autonomy of workers in the formation of trade unions. The ‘Make in India’ policy adopted in 2014 by the Modi government was another blow causing several insecurities to the labourers. The policy stood for more labour flexibility and resulted in the withdrawal of health and safety measures which increased the vulnerability of the workers.

Any narratives that exemplify the improved labour laws as a result of reforming thoughts of colonial systems are mere myths. The labour laws were continuously modified in the preferable period of times due to the consistent pressure of labour movements and labour unions. It was this collective conscience that provided more humane working conditions for the labourers.

India was one of the founding members of the International Labour Organisation which requisite the reduction of working hours to 8 hours and ratified those norms in 1921. The new relaxations of Factory Act also enable a firm having workers below 300 to lay off them without any prior consent. Earlier, this power was limited to firms with 100 workers only. Figures show that 99% of Indian establishments have workers below 100 numbers (Kannan, 2020). The new provision allows the MNCs in switching to a hire and fire policy. The complete corporate-friendly mitigations initiated by the states would ultimately result in a surge in unemployment and forced labour.

Forced Labour

K.T. Shah, a member of the Constituent Assembly and an alumnus of the London School of Economics, said that necessitous men aren’t free men (Shah, 1947). Sadly, the current relaxations of labour laws proposed during the crippling of the economy necessitate a worker to work in the conditions set by the employer. This is a smear intervention into the freedom of individuals. Dr B.R. Ambedkar believed that capital made the rules for workers. The dilution of the labour laws seems to be a U-turn taken towards the early realities addressed by Ambedkar. Thus, the formation of a private government in a politically democratic sphere is highly anticipated.

Article 23 of the Indian Constitution prohibits forced labour in India. When workers are ought to work in stretched working hours and without minimum wages, it could be defined as forced labour (PUDR Vs Union of India & Ors, 1982). The problems of forced labour are properly discussed in the Marxian theory of alienation. Alienation theory is a human-centric approach which draws the separation induced in a factory worker from the very essence of a human being, due to the monotonous job in a capitalist system (Marx, Theory of Alienation, 1844). Along with this ‘self-alienation’, labourers are also alienated from the product, production process and the other workers in a tedious job condition where their protection and unionism is diluted.

The current crisis will produce a ‘competition to work’ among workers. Let us take the examples of the tourism and textiles sectors. According to the report of a global think-tank KPMG, about 38 million jobs in the tourism sector is about to vanish while about 10 million is the calculation in the textiles sector. These conditions would result in a competition among workers to have the job and thereby allows the employer to hire the one who compromises the most. As Karl Marx correctly pointed out, the possibility of creation of an industrial reserve army by the capitalist class, the same happens here (Marx, Capital, 1867). Workers are put in a weak bargaining position and are maintained by a swelling number of unemployed workers which is used to pressurise the appointed ones. In a scenario of such forced labour, human rights and individual dignity remain as mere terminologies.

Conclusion

When the government has appeased workers with various provisions of the special economic package, the labour law relaxations are opening a door of exploitation. This way, capitalism balances the pandemic-driven economic crisis in a beam-scale, leaving workers alone to confront the hardships. Despite the accelerated increase in unemployment, working hours are legally extended, which indirectly conserve the continuation of surplus-value incrementation. Hence, the ultimate thought of a neoliberal economic system is to balance any blow and carry on the process of monetary accumulation benefited by a few.

To be more precise, the blow of COVID-19 was to be equally divided between the owner and the worker. However, the new provisions would enable capitalists to continue increasing their profits while labourers will have to bear the cost of the same. From certain dimensions, the special economic package might appear like a worker-friendly package that slightly helps to bear the blow of the pandemic, but as of now, the upcoming bangs from the employers aren’t legally hindered due to the relaxations.

At a time when there are discourses of growing appeal against globalised capitalist models of economies, the Indian governing thoughts are still content with an inclination towards the concept that separates the state from the private. As the preamble of the Indian Constitution maintains the adjective “Socialist” for India and the Directive Principles of State policy affirms against the capital accumulation, the current relaxations are clearly, ideologically unconstitutional. 

References

1. Business Insider, More than 77% of India’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of just 10% of its population — and it shows that its economic divide is only widening
2. Chronicle India, Retrieved 2020
3. Constitution of India, (n.d.), Directive Principles of State Policy, In B. R. Ambedkar, Constitution of India, India: Ministry of Externa Affairs, mea.gov.in
4. Kannan, K, Centre for Development Studies, Outlook India, Retrieved 2020
5. Marx, K, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Retrieved
6. Marx, K, (1867), Capital. In K. Marx, Capital Volume 1 (Vol. 1, pp 742). Penguin Classics Edition, Retrieved 2020
7. Marx, K, (1867), Capital, In K. Marx, Capital Volume 1 (Vol. 1), Penguin Classics Edition
8. Marx, K, (1867), Capital. In K. Marx, Capital Volume 1 (Vol. 1, pp 935), Penguin Classics Edition, Retrieved
9. PUDR Vs Union of India & Ors (Supreme Court of India September 18, 1982), Retrieved 2020
10. Shah, K. (1947), Minute of Dissent to the Draft Report of the Subcommittee on Fundamental Rights, Retrieved 2020,The Wire, 2020

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Rahul M R and Arjun S Mohan are Masters’ students of ‘Politics and International Relations’ and ‘Politics and Public Policy’ respectively, at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala. They can be reached at rahulmrshery@gmail.com and arjunsumo@gmail.com.

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