EVEN before bringing in any amendments to the labour laws, the Modi government has rendered the existing labour laws infructuous by revising the system of inspections by labour inspectors for violations of labour laws.

Most labour laws empower the labour inspectors to conduct surprise inspections of establishments to check for labour law violations. Of course, there were only some 3000 odd labour inspectors throughout the country who were authorized to check violation of labour law provisions, such as the Minimum Wages Act of 1948, in nearly 78 lakh establishments, or about 2500 establishments per inspector. In Maharashtra, the most industrialized state in the country in 2010, each labour inspector had to inspect some 5800 establishments. It was, therefore, quite understandable that while in the 1980s nearly 80% of the establishments were inspected annually, the figure had come down to 17% by 2010. In Uttar Pradesh for many years now no inspection can take place without the District Magistrate’s permission. What this abysmal level of inspection and consequent evasion of law has resulted in is a spike in industrial accidents and blatant violation of labour laws over the last decade. This is the case with the old inspection system. Yet, irrespective of these limitations, this was a major worry for the industrialists’ lobby.

Now, the Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced a revised inspection scheme with the objective of “simplifying business regulations and for bringing in transparency and accountability in labour inspections”. As per the new scheme, all inspections were based on a web portal assignment system, and the employers would be given prior information before any inspection. The system completely limited the powers of inspectors and made surprise inspections an impossibility and the entire process of inspections useless.

In fact, the present system does not conform to the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 of the International Labour Organization to which India is a signatory, and which recognizes that the functions of the system of labour inspection shall be to secure the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work, such as provisions relating to hours, wages, safety, health and welfare, the employment of children and young persons, which inter alia mandates that Labour inspectors should be empowered to enter freely and without previous notice at any hour of the day or night any workplace liable to inspection. Modi government is clearly violating the ILO convention.