Strikes cost fewer mandays

ECONOMIC SURVEY 2005-06\ INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Most strikes and lockouts were in the private sector.

The total number of strikes and lockouts declined 13.6 per cent from 552 to 447 between 2003 and 2004.

The Economic Survey notes that the total number of mandays lost between January and September 2005 was 7.3 million, against 13.53 million between January and September 2004, thus recording a decline of 46 per cent.

The Survey has highlighted that most of the strikes and lockouts during the recent months have been in the private sector.

"The number of strikes and lockouts during 2005 (January-September) was 340. During this period, the state of West Bengal experienced maximum instances of strikes and lockouts, followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat," the Survey said.

Industrial disturbances were concentrated mainly in the textiles, engineering, chemicals and food products industries, the Survey added.

"Most of these strikes and lockouts were in private establishments on account of wages and personnel issues," the Survey said.

In this context, the Survey has underlined the need for labour law reforms to enhance productivity and competitiveness of the Indian industry.

"The importance of reforming labour laws to enhance productivity, competitiveness, employment generation and general economic reforms hardly needs emphasis," said the Survey tabled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament.

The Survey, however, noted that steps had already been initiated to take care of concerns on these fronts. "A beginning has already been made in this direction."

It pointed out that the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act 2005 proposed to enhance the wage ceiling from the present level of Rs 1,600 per month to Rs 6,500 per month and also empower the central government to increase it further by way of notification.

The Survey also made a mention of the Factories (Amendment) Bill 2005, which proposed to provide flexibility and safety to women employees, and sought amendments to labour laws to simplify the procedure for maintaining registers and filing returns.