NEW DELHI: The parliamentary panel on labour has supported the idea of allowing companies having less than 300 workers to go for retrenchment or closure without government permission. The proposal, which has been the bone of contention at tripartite discussions on the Industrial Relation Code and attracted criticism from trade unions , has found the backing of the parliamentary standing committee on labour.In its report on the proposed Industrial Relation Code 2019, the panel said, “Threshold be increased accordingly in the Code itself and the words ‘may be notified by the appropriate government’ removed because reform of labour laws through the executive route is undesirable.” States like Rajasthan have already increased the threshold to 300 workers which, the labour ministry said, has resulted in an “increase in employment and decrease in retrenchment”. Sections of the bill said special provisions relating to lay-off, retrenchment and closure shall apply to firms having not less than 100 workers or numbers as notified by the ‘appropriate government’. This was brought down from the proposed threshold of 300 workers in the draft bill following opposition by unions.