The model Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Bill seeks to promote employment in retail and IT by allowing 24x7 operations — including night shifts for women, provided the necessary workplace requirements are met. It tries to ease doing business by addressing some broad problems: rigidity in the opening and closing of establishments, difficulties in registration and renewal, problems in maintenance of statutory records, and arbitrariness in inspections. The proposed law also covers banks, stocks, brokerages, journalistic or printing work, theatre, cinema, warehouses, bars, restaurants, among others. The draft, which significantly leaves out shops employing less than 10 workers, visualises cities that work round the clock all through the year, supported by essential services such as transportation, crèches and other public amenities. Working 24x7 will enable IT, financial and information services to cater to customers across time zones. It is also an option that India, with its abundance of skilled workers, can exercise without much ado. These workers could serve as customers for 24x7 retail outlets, restaurants and cinemas, lifting not just the economic output but the vibrancy of urban life. While the law rightly questions “protective discrimination” faced by women by debarring them from doing nightshifts, it is the labour department’s job to ensure that the establishment concerned provides the requisite transportation, rest room and crèche facilities, as well as the mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment. This should be accorded the highest priority. While nothing has been spelt out with respect to minimum wages, which are likely to be met or exceeded to draw workers, the draft law lays out a nine-hour working day and a 48-hour week, while exempting IT and biotechnology from the norm. The challenge in implementing this act as well as other labour-related laws, is to ensure that entitlements of workers are met while keeping the rules simple and labour law inspections to a minimum.

Yet, there are concerns. The law is focused on raising output by using more labour, rather than developing skills, productivity and innovation, which are important in IT and finance in particular. This will help India retain its competitiveness only in the short run. Inconsistencies between the draft law and labour laws pertaining to manufacturing could give rise to confusion, particularly in an integrated workplace performing various roles under a single roof, and employing workers under different terms and conditions. By leaving out small establishments, it has heightened the possibility of sweat shop conditions being perpetuated there through use of ‘family labour’, now permissible under the amended child labour laws. The energy requirements of urban India working at night could suddenly spike.

That said, the draft law signals a reformist approach to regulation in a labour-surplus economy, which States should take up in their own interest. That said, the Centre need to work with stakeholders on widening the social safety net through pension and insurance schemes, so that such reforms do not run into socio-political resistance.

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