Jail Punishment in Labour Law Violation-Good or Bad | Govt. plans to remove
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Assam plans to remove jail punishment from labor law violation cases
- Assam labour Minister presented 10 labour law amendment bills in the house
- To promote ease of doing business
- Fine amount increased several times.
Jail Punishment in Labour Law Violation- Good or Bad
In order to ease labour reforms and ease doing business, should the government keep control over business and employment practices by private organizations through labour law?
However, businesses are free to do their best to grow their business and regularize employment under guided regulations, and prescribed labour and employment laws.
If businesses violate the labour law provisions, the government could impose the punitive measure of imprisonment.
Criminal penalties, especially the risk of imprisonment, often unintentional offenses, are a major reason for low business investment. This is not good for business growth in the country.
To that end, states are now in the mood to abolish the death penalty in cases of labour law violations.
On Tuesday, the Assam government introduced 10 labour law amendment bills related to private sector employees for dilution of the criminal panel provisions in order to promote “ease of doing business.”
Sanjay Kishan, Labour Welfare Minister in Assam government, presented the bills in Assam Assembly on the first day of the Winter Session and said the proposed amendments have been brought in to decriminalize all labour laws by bringing in civil penalties.
He further added, “The rationale behind decriminalization is that imprisonment is too severe a consequence for economic offenses that do not involve mala fide.” The legal process surrounding an offense involving imprisonment “increases anxiety” among employers, and the elimination of such processes leads to “improved ease of doing business.”
Sanjay Kishan, presented the amendment bills: The Minimum Wages (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Plantations Labour (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, and The Industrial Disputes (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022.
Instead of the first table, other amendment bills were presented, the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022; and the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022.
In the third table, The Equal Remuneration (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, and The Payment of Gratuity (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2022, were also introduced in the House.
Sanjay Kishan also claimed at the end of the amendment bill presentation, “this will relieve employers of the fear of imprisonment while protecting workers’ rights.”
He asserted that the idea is that strong deterrent provisions with heavy fines will force employers to have watertight internal organizational and operational mechanisms to ensure that there are no lapses in compliance.
However, the punitive measures of punishment have been removed, but the amount of the fine has been multifold by several times.
