Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit - Reforming the Labour Market

Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit - Reforming the Labour Market [Druckversion]

Reforming the Labour Market

Book Cover

The work on Labour reforms was initiated to bring in reforms in the rigid labour laws that exist in India and the new discourse on liberalisation in India takes into account labour market reforms as a crucial area. The rigid labour laws in India (especially in the organised sector) artificially drive up the capital intensity and make it difficult for India to exploit the comparative advantage in labour. Although the project was to look into the organised sector and suggest reforms in the labour laws, however as work went ahead, an interesting aspect came to light namely that more than 92% of the labour force was in the unorganised sector. Within the organised segment, flexibility in labour markets is usually interpreted as changes in the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), requiring what is sometimes called, an automatic hire and fire policy. Therefore, the purview of the project was extended to include reforms of the labour market and not just look at the narrow interpretation of bringing in reforms to the IDA. The result is a collection of well-written and well-researched articles on labour ranging from „Reservation in the Private Sector“ to the Womens Workforce and those of the service industry in India today. The publication evokes a strong debate on issues of labour law reforms and has been well-received by the Indian audience. There was a discussion on the issue of Labour Market Reforms during the programme.

The publication was released by Dr. Krishnamurthy, Chairman of the Committee on National Manufacturers Competititve Council on 20th December, 2004 at New-Delhi. The publication on „Small Scale Industry in India: Large Scale Exit Problems“ was also released during the function.