-The Business Standard Hiring contract labour must come with more commitments Almost a third of India’s organised labour force is on contract. This is an inevitable consequence of archaic labour laws that make it impossible for India Inc to disengage permanent workers even if they can’t afford them, don’t need them or they don’t perform. Companies such as Maruti Suzuki India have thus used contract workers liberally — almost half the workers...

-DNA It would be sad if the ghastly violence at Maruti Suzuki’s (MSIL) Manesar plant on July 18, 2012, in which a HR manager died, were to be understood simply as a ‘murderous workers’ vs ‘rational management’ kind of an incident. There is a history and a context to this violence, and how that is understood, and acknowledged, by India Inc. will indicate how serious we are about preventing such incidents...

-The Times of India Preliminary findings into the violence at the Maruti's Manesar plant has disproved the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union's allegations that the mob fury was triggered by "casteist comments" allegedly made by a supervisor against a dalit worker. Investigators claimed that the supervisor, Sangram Singh, was also a dalit like his alleged victim, permanent worker Jiyalal, and therefore could not have made abusive comments against him. MSWU had alleged the casteist...

-The Indian Express From Nariman Point to Tirupur, from broking firms to ancillary industries — as a two-part series in this newspaper has illustrated — the economy is seeing a steady contraction in employment opportunities. The economic and social cost is sobering but the UPA should also worry about the political implications. Lakhs of jobs are being lost when India is heading for a general election that could be decided primarily...

-The Telegraph Burdwan: A 65-year-old labourer was allegedly beaten to death by a group of farmers in Burdwan when a meeting to discuss the workers’ demand for a revision of daily Wages escalated into a clash. Radhanath Soren, who is also a CPM worker, was taken to Jamalpur health centre where he was pronounced dead. Over 100 farm labourers in Nabagram have for the past three days refused to cultivate the fields at...