The Madhya Pradesh cabinet on Monday approved amendments to as many as 20 labour laws. Of these, 17 are central government laws and three state laws. “All the central labour laws will be forwarded to the President of India for his assent,” said K C Gupta, labour commissioner.

Madhya Pradesh has become the second state, after Rajasthan, to propose amendments to labour laws, including the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and the Factories Act,1948.

In an important amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the cabinet gave its assent to the retrenchment of workers, lay-offs and the easy closure of units. “Lay-offs, retrenchments and even closures will not require any permission,” Gupta said.

When asked if this was akin to a ‘hire-and-fire’ policy, Gupta said, “Yes. But it has certain conditions. The amendment will be applicable only if the industrial establishment has up to 300 workers. Earlier, it was applicable to industrial units having atleast 100 workers, employed on an average per working day for the preceding 12 months.” The cabinet approved this amendment to offer an option to employers to retrench unproductive and inefficient workers.

Such workers would lose job security but would get better compensation packages. “The principal of ‘Last Come First Go’ will remain intact. The employer can retrench employees by giving them a three-month notice and wages of three months in lieu of the job,” Gupta said.

Vis a vis state labour laws, the cabinet cleared an amendment to the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1961. It would give an easy option to employers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to terminate any employee without giving any reason or conducting any enquiry. This would apply to SMEs having worker strength of less than 50.

Similarly, an amendment to the Trade Union Act, 1926 has also been given clearance.

Among other amendments, the state government has cleared the proposal to stretch “overtime” from 75 hours to 125 hours but “with the consent of the worker”, through an amendment to the Factories Act, 1960 and also extend working time from the maximum 60 hours to 72 hours.

To protect their interest, the state has cleared certain exemptions to micro industries from certain labour laws mainly the Contract Labour (regulation and abolition) Act, 1970, the Factories Act, 1948, MP Industrial Employment Act, 1961 and the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

Also, the state has now empowered the labour commissioner in lieu of labour inspector to prosecute employers in case of any violation of labour laws. To make them free from inspections, state industries will not have to maintain as many as 68 registrations and furnish 16 returns under 19 different laws. “Now, they will be required to maintain only one register,” Gupta said.

However, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) has termed the amendments “anti-labour and anti-worker” and threatened to launch massive protest against them. “These amendments are anti-labour and anti-worker. We already had a meeting in this regard recently and another meeting of all trade unions is proposed on September 25. All trade unions have expressed solidarity against this move. We will launch a massive protest,” R D Tripathy, president INTUC (Madhya Pradesh chapter) told Business Standard