President nod to Gujarat labour reforms bill

Gujarat’s labour reforms bill has received President Pranab Mukherjee’s assent with some controversial provisions like settling disputes between workers and management through a “compromise” formula with the payment of “penalty” to the government among the new measures.

The President gave his assent to the the Labour Laws (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2015 which provides for “compounding of offenses” wherein industrial employee(s) can arrive at a compromise with the employer without moving court. The bill proposes a total of 14 amendments to various labour laws.

“We have received the Presidential assent for the The Labour Laws (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2015,” C.J. Gothi parliamentary secretary of the Gujarat government told PTI today.

“The assent was received in September but we are yet to notify the Bill in the gazette to start its enforcement,” he said.

The bill has a provision where both the parties (workers and industry) can end their dispute through compromise called as ‘compounding of offenses’.

Under this new system of compounding of offenses, workers can arrive at compromise with the employer without approaching court. For this, the government will charge upto `21,000 as penalty from the employer and give 75 per cent of that penalty money to the affected employee or employees. However, this compounding of offenses will be only implemented if both the parties agree to it, as per the bill. The provision has been introduced to reduce legal cases. An industrial unit can take benefit of it three times only, it said.

“The state government has considered it necessary to strike a balance of interest between the industries and the workers and create an environment which is conducive for both through this Bill. The Bill has many pro-labour changes also,” state labour minister Vijay Rupani said.