In the Courts
Denial of maternity leave an assault on women's dignity and fundamental rights: Orissa High Court
In a significant ruling, the Orissa High Court has ruled that the refusal to grant maternity leave to a female employee is “an assault on their dignity and right to life”. The case was lodged by assistant teacher Swornalata Dash after her request was rejected by the district education officer.
Settlement Between Employee Union & Employer Would Not Override Model Standing Orders Unless It Is More Beneficial To Employee : Supreme Court
The Supreme Court observed that any settlement between employee Union and the Employer would not override the Model Standing Order, unless it is more beneficial to the employees. "On various occasions, this Court has observed that the certified standing orders have a statutory force. The Standing Order implies a contract between the employer and the workman. Therefore, the employer and workman cannot enter into a contract overriding the statutory contract embodied in the certified Standing Orders"
Women in the Workforce
'There Are No Jobs in Our Village': Rising Costs, Stagnating Wages Exacerbate Rural Distress
Nashik/Kolhapur (Maharashtra): Every day, 55-year-old Ranjana Magar, a short and wiry woman, wakes up at 4 am. After a bath, she cooks and packs her lunch and boards a mini-truck carrying passengers to Girnare, 20 km from her home in Malegaon, a village in Nashik district’s Trimbakeshwar taluka, in north Maharashtra. In Girnare, she stands at the main traffic intersection with thousands of people from nearby villages looking for work as agricultural workers.
India will soon outstrip China’s population – but its labour force will still be smaller
This is largely due to its extremely low female workforce. India’s LFPRs are not only much below the global average, but significantly lower than China’s. As of 2021 (the latest year for which comparable data is available), 75.8% of China’s working age population (15-64) was part of its labour force, ie they were either employed, or looking for work, data from the International Labour Organisation’s modelled estimates show. In India, on the other hand, only 51.3% of those in this age group were part of the labour force in the same year.
Female labour participation declining in India: Why are women not working?
Less than 20% of India's women work at paid jobs and female workforce participation has been declining in the country. Data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that the employability gender gap in India is 50.9%, with only 19.2% of women in the labour force compared to 70.1% of men.
Child Labour News
Tribal children engaged in plantation labour
Amid reports of school dropouts being reported in several tribal hamlets, children in the 8-15 age group are seen engaged in labour in areca nut and banana plantations near Kakkadampoyil and neighbourhoods bordering Malappuram and Kozhikode; they are used as cheap labour for clearing undergrowth in private plantations and fields.
Child labour cases spike in Delhi
NEW DELHI: While police are still investigating the torture of a minor girl who was employed as a domestic help in Dwarka, data shows a substantial increase in child labour in the city. The number of underaged workers rescued has almost tripled in 2023 compared with the previous year.
Child labour needs our urgent attention
An incident in Delhi highlights the challenges of implementing anti-child labour laws and the need for the government to do more to tackle child labour. A 33-year-old pilot and her 36-year-old husband who worked as part of the ground staff for another airline were arrested from Delhi’s Dwarka suburb for allegedly employing a 10-year-old girl as their domestic help and assaulting her.
News from States
Forest Guardians in Kashmir: Challenging Job, Unpaid Salaries
Kashmir has 8,128 sq km total forest cover, with 42 forest types in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Hundreds of casual labourers in the wildlife department risk their lives daily to control forest fires and tranquillise wild animals in residential areas. In addition to the occupational risks, they face hardship due to unpaid salaries and inadequate compensation impacting their families.
Explained: What The Rajasthan Minimum Income Bill Guarantees
The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, was passed in the state Assembly by voice vote last week. The bill brings the rural employment guarantee scheme, the urban employment guarantee scheme and the pension scheme under one umbrella legislation. These will be implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi Minimum Income Guarantee Scheme.
Clerk strike: Haryana losing Rs 200 crore per day, property registration process paralyzed
The strike has severely impacted property registries, vehicle registration and other services typically handled by clerks, contributing to a loss of Rs 750 crore for Gurgaon alone. The clerks initiated an indefinite strike on July 15, demanding a salary increase from the current basic pay of Rs 19,000 to Rs 35,400.
Kerala to roll out employment guarantee scheme for overseas returnees
Under NAME, guaranteed employment will be provided to the returnees in sectors where their expertise can be utilised. The State government will provide a percentage of the wages of the employee to the employer for a certain period.
The Gig Economy
Rajasthan passes bill for formation of welfare board, fund for gig workers
The Rajasthan Assembly on Monday passed a bill to register platform-based gig workers and their aggregators and to provide a social net to an army of mostly youngsters who have become an integral part of everyday life but are paid poorly and enjoy little job security. According to the bill, the aggregators will have to provide data of all gig workers registered with them within 60 days of the notification of the law. The Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill seeks to set up a welfare fund, making the state helmed by chief minister and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot the first to get such a piece of legislation passed.
Indian state’s new tax on digital platforms sets gig workers against firms
Gig workers have welcomed the new law in India’s largest state Rajasthan to impose a tax on revenue earned by digital platforms that operate in the state including global giants Uber and Amazon, even as industry groups have warned it will eventually hurt customers and derail business in the state.
Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023
The Rajasthan Assembly recently passed a significant Bill aimed at extending social security benefits to gig workers. Provisions of the new law are detailed here.
India Inc makes a gig shift in hiring
Demand for freelance professionals has reached an all-time high in India as companies in sectors such as technology, professional services and consulting, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare and pharmaceuticals, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and manufacturing are increasingly appointing gig workers to meet talent needs.
Profiles
Meet the Kerala Sahitya Akademi winner who drives an excavator by day
After his eight-hour shift as a backhoe loader operator would end, Akhil K would shift into creative mode for the next four hours, night after night. During the day, while his muscles manoeuvred the bucket and loader of the heavy machine in the hinterlands of Kannur, the 28-year-old’s mind would be busy shaping a plot for his novel or its protagonist.
Benefits for Workers
Post COVID-19, corporates begin offering OPD benefits to employees
Of the 251 IT, manufacturing, pharma, engineering, financial and other companies studied, only 40 were providing out-patient department (OPD) benefits in 2019, per the latest report by AON India. "However, in 2023, this number has grown to 85 companies. There has been a 51% increase in the number of companies offering these services,” said Shantanoo Saxena, Vice President,
Worker Welfare
G20 Labour and Employment Ministers Meet: Outcome documents on skills, gig economy and social security net funding adopted.
The draft measures agreed upon include a strategic move to address the global skills shortage, providing decent working conditions with adequate social security to the economy of freelance, temporary work and workers working on online platforms (gig and platform workers) and sustainable funding arrangements to provide adequate social security to all workers.