Department of Management organized online webinar on the New Labour Codes 2021 on 28th December 2021. The keynote speaker of the event was Prof. Srinath Jagannathan from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore.
He expressed his concern about the eroding status of the working class since independence and how the New Labour Codes 2021 may end up continuing the same misery. He further highlighted the growing precariousness of the working class in India and the imbalance that continues to exist between minority permanent job holders and the majority ad-hoc, contractual, and temporary workers.
He qualifies this distinctiveness as ‘Naukri’ and ‘Kaam’ respectively. Furthermore, the issues around shrinking of female workforce were also raised. The shrinkage was attributed to the causes with regards to failure in implementation of the specified provisions of the Labour laws. These failures were further attributed to the continuous apathy and unwillingness of employers in providing for provisions with regards to social security net provided in the Labour Laws. Employers continue to perceive laws related to maternity benefits and security against sexual harassment as burdensome and therefore seldom implemented.
In addition, he also highlighted how more than 90% of the job lost during 2018 belong to female workforce. Prof. Srinath Jagannathan is also of the view that labour laws alone cannot resolve issues around female employment and social revolution is the need of the hour. He highlighted the need for stalwarts in spiritual leadership of 19th and 20th century India such as Swami Vivekanand who could have raised such issues with more conviction.
In addition, he also suggested how provisions in Industrial Dispute Act and various other provisions of Labour Laws delegitimize the strike no matter which route an employee takes.
Rajesh Bhatt, Head of Department, Department of Management, Mewar University thanked Prof. Srinath Jagannathan for his insightful talk and the webinar was concluded with a promise to resume similar talks in the very next opportunity available.