Jul 25 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Sensible Proposals on Labour Reform
The Apprenticeship Act calls for change
The government plans to amend three labour laws: on minimum wages, apprenticeship and child labour. This is welcome. India's labour laws must be aligned with the needs of the 21st century . These laws must protect workers' interests, sure, but also give employers the leeway to adjust to market needs. The outdated apprenticeship law is one reason why India has only 3,00,000 formal apprentices, while Germany has six million. Arbitrary rules on how many apprentices and in what ratio to the workforce, etc, hamper skill acquisition by young people rather than protect them. The licence raj on nationwide permissions for national employers makes no sense and should also be scrapped.Apprenticeships are not jobs. The government should desist from any change in the law that will force employers to absorb apprentices. A pragmatic way is for employers to formulate their own hiring policies. The training period varies from six months to four years now. A maxi mum training period of three years, as proposed by an inter-ministerial group, seems sound, for both employe rs and apprentices. Employers who vi olate the law should face fines rather than prison terms. Stipends for appre ntices are too low, and should be rais ed. However, the entire cost need not be borne by the employer: the state can chip in, if it is serious about skill development and job creation. The point is to have a robust law that will help greatly expand formal apprenticeship as part of a flexible market for skills.
Amendments proposed to the Minimum Wages Act -such as setting a floor for minimum wages across professions, revision every five years based on NSSO's Consumption Expenditure Survey -will raise salaries of workers in the unorganised sector and is, therefore, welcome. The amendment to the Child Labour Act to bar children between 14 and 18 years from taking up hazardous occupations is in order. But at a more fundamental level, the political class should intervene at the grassroots to change the socioeconomic foundations to send children to school, rather than to work.
Amendments proposed to the Minimum Wages Act -such as setting a floor for minimum wages across professions, revision every five years based on NSSO's Consumption Expenditure Survey -will raise salaries of workers in the unorganised sector and is, therefore, welcome. The amendment to the Child Labour Act to bar children between 14 and 18 years from taking up hazardous occupations is in order. But at a more fundamental level, the political class should intervene at the grassroots to change the socioeconomic foundations to send children to school, rather than to work.
