Improving labour laws

Faced with the risk of losing important Western markets if the country does not comply with the WTO requirements, that is, compliance with international labour standards, the government has suddenly sprung into action. Deciding to regulate the affairs of the sector, the Federal Government is reported to have directed the Ministry of Labour and Manpower to prepare 'Contract Workers Employment Bill' on an emergency basis.
The ministry is already said to have recommended amendments in the existing laws pertaining to work hours and employment of contract workers on piece rates. It has also decided to enhance the limit of minimum wages for female workers under Women's Compensation Act.
As per the amendments, the work-week, inclusive of paid overtime, must not exceed 60-hours. It is not clear, though, as to what measures have been proposed to improve the lot of the contract labour, which is least organised and hence is the worst sufferer in terms of employment conditions and benefits.
The situation of female labour force is not much different either. In fact, more and more industries, especially those engaged in the manufacturing of garments, electronics and pharmaceuticals, are inducting female workers mainly because it is easier to treat them as cheap labour. An early and effective implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work will be in order.
The labour ministry, after consultation with APTMA, has also decided to change the existing rules under which women cannot be asked to work after 6 pm. This time limit is now to be extended up to 10 pm. In another commendable decision, while approving the ministry's recommendations at a recent meeting, the Cabinet directed it to include the proviso that the employer must take responsibility for furnishing transportation facility to female workers doing late evening duty, and also ensure necessary protection for them.
These measures are important indeed in creating an enabling environment for the female workforce.
While the government is in the process of reviewing the corpus of the labour laws with a view to bringing them in tune with the demands of the time, it must also take a fresh look at some of the other laws that tend to prohibit rather than promote production activity.
A case in point is the present worker number threshold level at which the labour laws become applicable to an industrial concern. Under the existing circumstances, as soon as an enterprise starts production activity with ten or more workers, it is subjected to a whole slew of burdensome labour laws. On paper this looks good in terms of securing worker interests, but in practice things turn out quite differently.
Most of the small and medium enterprises find it very difficult to provide the workers with various benefits that are mandatory under the labour laws. Hence more often than not, either they find a way of circumventing these laws by bribing concerned officials from the related departments, or by hiring employees on a contract basis so that the laws simply do not apply. Anticipating the problems, some never venture outside the informal sector, and thereby fail to realise their full production potential.
The truth of the matter is that applicability of the labour laws to small enterprises neither serves the worker interests or the entrepreneurs'. The government must, therefore, extend the worker threshold level to 100 or more for the applicability of the labour laws.
Such a concession, as we have been repeatedly saying in these columns, will give a major boost to the small and medium enterprises, helping the sector to grow and create the much-needed employment opportunities in the country.