ALTHOUGH firms employing less than 100 workers increased their employment more than larger firms, possibly indicating a threshold effect of Chapter V-B of the IDA (Industrial Dispute Act), allowing smaller firms to freely retrench, the difference was insignificant for manual workers. On the other hand, as compared to these smaller firms, a larger proportion of the bigger firms reported a decrease in employment, which increased with the size of firm. The inference was that these firms were not being deterred from hiring and firing, despite the IDA provisions remaining undiluted’. In his 2007 survey of labour issues in India, R. Nagaraj notes how the organized sector ‘shed 1.8 million (6.3%) jobs, mostly in manufacturing (1.2 million jobs or 18%)’ between 1997 and 2004. Numbers like these are hardly evidence of the lack of labour flexibility.