Indian labour law and investment

Tamil Nadu Assembly that amended the Factory Act 

 The first was the passage of a piece of legislation in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that amended the Factory Act of 1948

to extend the number of working hours in a day, from eight hours to 12 hours. 

A similar piece of legislation was passed in the Karnataka Assembly, a few months ago. 

However, in his address during May Day celebrations in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, announced the withdrawal of the legislation.

 This announcement comes on the back of the temporary hold on further action on the Bill by the Tamil Nadu government, after strong opposition; this includes the State government’s alliance partners and trade unions.

Changes in laws, no social dialogue

The eight-hour working day, adopted

by the International Labour Organization in 1919, is a hard won right by workers and trade unions, who have had to struggle over the years to keep capricious policy changes at bay.

 Why ? intent of governments 

to house investments by transnational corporations (through their supply chains), by ramping up capacities and provisioning incentives. 

these legislative changes could trace their legacy to the four labour codes

passed by the central government in 2019-20, which, in turn, 

have weakened the labour protection architecture, lowered thresholds and squeezed collective bargaining, thereby effectively curtailing their actual operability.

What is missing

. Not only are sustained processes of consultations with workers being short-circuited or ignored altogether, 

but these are also being considered anathema अभिशाप by almost all ruling dispensations irrespective of political persuasions.धारणाओं

. In doing so, it prioritises a favourable investment climate over the well-being of workers.

The second development in April that was widely publicised with much fanfare

 was of Apple’s opening of its first two retail stores in India, in Mumbai and then Delhi in the presence of the Apple CEO who was in India for the events. 

This follows his statement last year, expressing bullishness तेजी about the brand’s business prospects in India, 

which was  as a sign of India being well and truly in the race to run parallel with China,

 

Through its suppliers

it incentivises this artificial competition, even while retaining the flexibility to operate across contending geographies and feeding on consumers’ tastes, who view the possession of its devices as a status symbol.

Mainland China as template

The two happenings in April

may seem separate, but from a labour-centric perspective, it is only rational to spot the connection. 

Already, under its ‘Make in India initiative’ and later with the Production Linked Incentives scheme

 the central government aims to turn the country into a manufacturing hub, like China. 

In this larger design, the electronics industry has received top priority 

and, within it, Apple (entwined with Foxconn as the main supplier) has come to be considered, the gold standard.

coordination with various State governments

In line with this, the central government has been working in close coordination with various State governments, 

including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to work out common strategies to capitalise on the company’s diversification plans away from China. 

For years, Foxconn 

has had a stable base in Tamil Nadu (encouraging other Taiwanese companies in other sectors as well).

 As a part of its corporate social responsibility obligations, it has even reciprocated विनिमय by making massive financial contributions to the State government’s educational initiatives.

 Such coordination and a mobilising of efforts by governments resembles से मिलता है the symbiotic relationship between Apple-Foxconn and the Chinese Communist Party-state.

In china

In such a highly regimented, constantly disciplining, just-in-time production system that demands orderliness and standardisation from workers, the human costs of the squeeze दबाव  are not only physical but also mental and emotional. 

Ultimately, viewed from a labour-centric perspective, in the ambition to overtake China, we end up, more or less, as being another China.

In the prioritisation of a favourable investment climate to compete with China, there are clear signs of a scant regard for the well-being and the rights of India’s workers

source the Hindu