Comments
The pick-up in the economy in the year 2010 seems to have spurred a sharply improving climate on the industrial relations front.
The Economic Survey 2010-11 shows that the year 2010, according to provisional Labour Bureau data, saw the lowest number of strikes and lockouts in the last five years. Strikes came down by half to 79 in 2010, going by provisional estimates, from 157 in 2009. Also, the number of lockouts, at 20 last year, was just a tenth of the 192 reported in the year 2009.
Correspondingly, the man-days lost — the calculation of loss of productivity due to industrial disruptions — came down to around 17 lakh from the 92 lakh days lost in 2009. In the year 2005, the number of strikes were way high at 227, there were 229 lockouts that were recorded and the total productivity lost was pegged at 2.96 crore man-days.
Interestingly, Gujarat — touted as among the most industrial-friendly States — witnessed the highest number of strikes and other forms of labour unrest in recent times on account of various financial and disciplinary issues. “There exist widespread variations among States. The maximum incidences (strikes and lockouts) were recorded in Gujarat,” it says.
The document noted that there are several labour laws and policies such as the Factories Act and provisions for contract labour that are waiting to be modified ‘to make them in tune with the changing economic and worker profile in the country'.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.