The economic crisis following the pandemic and untimely national lockdown have been used by both the central and state governments to push through unilateral measures that undermine workers’ interest by dismantling critical protections
The pandemic induced national lockdown led to massive reverse migration of workers and millions lost their jobs the true extent of which would never be known since the central government did not track it. This should have occasioned better protections for workers; instead, the reverse has happened.
The central government hurriedly passed three new labour codes in September 2020, increasing the thresholds for several legal protections for workers and introducing a new category of employment called Fixed Term Employment (FTE) which can potentially be used to turn permanent workers into temporary (contract) ones.
Before that, about a dozen state governments had issued notifications dismantling many basic protections like payment of minimum wages and minimum working hours, some for a period of the next three years.
Source: Business Today
