In his column "Can Modi sweep out inspectors?" (Human Factor, October 24) Shyamal Majumdar calls some sections in the Factories Act, 1948, absurd but does not give any reasons for labelling them thus. If there were no provisions for substituting a holiday for working on a weekly off, the worker could have been asked by the employer to work for 10 days or more at a stretch inducing inefficiency, fatigue and inattentive unsafe action.
The need for prescribing whitewashing, revarnishing, and so on at prescribed intervals is to ensure cleanliness and good housekeeping at the workplace. The stipulation for providing washing and storing clothes needs to be seen from the workers' point of view also.
And what is wrong if the Act requires the employer to provide sitting arrangement for workers doing standing jobs? It is an aid to productive working.
Our labour laws were enacted to protect workers from exploitation by unscrupulous management. They do suffer from overabundant precaution in ensuring this. They need to be simplified and updated to suit the times, rather than being rejected altogether.
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The need for prescribing whitewashing, revarnishing, and so on at prescribed intervals is to ensure cleanliness and good housekeeping at the workplace. The stipulation for providing washing and storing clothes needs to be seen from the workers' point of view also.
And what is wrong if the Act requires the employer to provide sitting arrangement for workers doing standing jobs? It is an aid to productive working.
Our labour laws were enacted to protect workers from exploitation by unscrupulous management. They do suffer from overabundant precaution in ensuring this. They need to be simplified and updated to suit the times, rather than being rejected altogether.
Y G Chouksey Pune
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number