-The Hindu It quashes Gujarat notification exempting factories from paying Overtime Wages to workers during lockdown between April 20 and July 19 New Delhi: The State cannot declare the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic a “public emergency”to curtail the rights of people, the Supreme Court said on Thursday. The pandemic had not resulted in an ‘internal disturbance’ of a nature that posed a ‘grave emergency’ whereby the security of India was threatened,...

-The Hindu Wage theft — non-payment for overtime, denying workers their last pay check after he or she leaves a job, not paying for all of the hours worked, not paying minimum wages — is a trend that often goes unreported Haneesh Kumar P.B., an Indian migrant supervisor in an automobile company in Oman, was told to resign on April 30, along with some 400 colleagues. In all, the company asked around...

-The Hindu They say several crucial laws have been amended to tilt the balance in favour of industries Bengaluru: As the State government unveiled the New Industrial Policy, 2020–25, to attract investors, trade unions are protesting over the manner in which several crucial labour laws have been amended to tilt the balance in favour of industries. The sweeping changes brought to Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act, and Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act,...

-The Hindu Business Line In Himachal Pradesh, the scheme comes as a breather to those who lost their jobs Nand Lal was working in an electronics company at Parwanoo, an industrial town in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, when the first lockdown was announced, in March. He had no choice but to come back to Surah, his village in the Murhag panchayat of Mandi district. Since then, he has already worked for 56...

-The Hindu On the contrary, scrapping labour laws will only reduce wages, lower earnings and reduce consumer demand Following the adage, “never waste a crisis”, the government of Uttar Pradesh, last week, introduced an ordinance that has scrapped most labour laws for three years — ostensibly for creating jobs and for attracting factories exiting China following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. These laws deal with the occupational safety, health and working...