New draft rules for the Code on Wages allow governments to decide the normal daily work hours, currently fixed at eight, prompting labour economists and workers’ representatives to express fear about exploitation by private employers.
The labour and employment ministry on Tuesday published the new draft rules for all four labour laws passed in 2019 and sought feedback, after protests by workers’ bodies had prevented the implementation of the previous draft rules of 2020.
Critics said the new draft rules for the Code on Wages were worse than the old
draft rules or the existing Minimum Wage Act of 1948 in some respects.
Like the 1948 Act, the old draft stipulated nine-hour days with an hour’s break
for changeovers, tea, rest, washroom visits and the like. This complied with the International Labour Organisation’s India-ratified convention on eight-hour days and 48-hour weeks.
The new draft rules do not specify the daily work hour limit, leaving it to the Centre (and the state governments, since labour is a concurrent subject) to notify. Labour economists and activists said this provision would allow governments to notify 10 to 12 working hours a day, which would leave the burgeoning gig and platform workforce vulnerable to exploitation.
This would happen despite the new draft rules for the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Code stipulating, like earlier, 48-hour weeks, they argued.
The critics suggested that, for example, daily wage earners can be made to work, say, 12 hours a day for four days, with a new set of labourers engaged for the rest of the week.
Gig workers — such as food delivery agents or people like cleaners or barbers sent on assignment to private homes by the platforms engaging them — too can be made to work longer hours, leaving them fatigued and endangering their health, the critics argued.
As for workers paid weekly or monthly wages at factories, they can be made to work long hours on particular days without overtime payment — a must under existing rules — while being given a few hours’ additional rest on other days to comply with the 48-hour weekly norm.
“The number of hours of work that will constitute a normal working day inclusive of one or more specified intervals shall be as per general or special order, issued from time to time,” the new draft rules say.
The states generally follow the central rules, sometimes with minor modifications.
The ministry has circulated new draft rules for the Industrial Relations Code and the Social Security Code, too. Together, the four new laws subsume all the existing labour laws.
Labour economist Shyam Sundar, an adjunct professor at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, said the ministry should have clearly mentioned the eight-hour working day, which is the global standard.
“Though the government has kept 48 hours as the weekly working hours, the lack of clarity on the daily work hours can be (exploited) by the state governments, which may notify up to 12 hours of work a day,” he said.
“Prescribing the weekly hours of work and leaving the daily hours of work to notifications creates uncertainty for both the employers and the workers in terms of planning and management.”
Nirmal Gorana, national coordinator, Gig and Platform Services Workers Union, said gig workers were the most exploited and would become more vulnerable if the work hours were extended.
“Even now, many platforms make the workers work more than eight hours a day. The government wants to help companies make workers work for 12 hours a day,” he said. “This will affect their health and motivation.”
A labour economist who did not wish to be identified said that various states had relaxed the eight-hour-day norms during the pandemic, using their emergency powers. However, the relaxation can now become normal without any emergency.
“The low-level workers (such as day labourers and gig workers), in particular, need protection, but they will be more vulnerable,” he said.