In a decision certain to raise eyebrows, the Maharashtra Government has transferred the implementation of important labour laws from the labour department to the department of industries for the proposed textile zone at Butibori.
The state government gazettes notifying the change were issued last month. The labour department will no longer exercise the powers conferred to it under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation Act, 1986 and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 for disputes arising in the textile zone.
The Payment of Gratuity Act and the Contract Labour Act are also in the process of being transferred to the department of industries, it was learnt.
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According to the gazettes, all powers exercised by the commissioner of labour under the above Acts will now be exercised by the joint/deputy director of industries, Nagpur, for textile zone, Butibori.
On the face of it, the notifications look insignificant since the textile zone, though notified by the government, is yet to come into existence.
Moreover, the government has only transferred the powers from one department to another; it has not modified the laws as being demanded by industry.
The government, sources said, perhaps acted from a belief that the labour department is too pro-labour and hence acts against industrial interests.
The industries department, on the other hand, is pro-industry and if adjudicates in labour matters its decisions will be influenced by the prime consideration of industrial survival and development.
While this belief is debatable, trade unions are set to be angered by this limited divestment of powers of the labour department.
They see it as a ploy to subvert labour laws, beginning with textile zone and eventually expanding it to other areas.
Reacting to the development, Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS) leader Haribhau Naik pointed out that the directorate of industries neither has the machinery nor the experience to implement labour laws.
Thus, cases referred to it will remain pending and will eventually die their own death, thereby ensuring that the laws remain unused, he said.
The government has left workers at the mercy of employers and opened the gates for a hire and fire zone, he said.
The laws transferred to the directorate of industries are fundamental to the interest of workers and they should not have been touched. In fact, there is a need to strictly enforce them, Naik said.