The Author, Saumya Giri, 3rd Year student of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow.
INTRODUCTION
The Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, is a key piece of legislation that is enacted by Indian Parliament to regulate the condition of service of inter-state labourers in Indian Labour Law, with major focus on to protect workers whose services are requisitioned outside their native states in India. Whenever an employer faces shortage of skills among the locally available workers, they would employ better skilled workers available outside the state as per the provision created through this act. This Act is applicable to, every establishment which employed five or more interstate migrants or who have employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, as well as to every contractor who employs or who employed five or more interstate migrant workmen on any day or preceding twelve month. Thus, the law requires all the above mentioned establishments hiring such migrants to be registered, and supra contractors who recruits such workmen be licensed.
OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE
The objective and purpose for carving out this legislation can be traced from the history of the employment system of interstate migrant labour which was an exploitative prevalent almost all over India, though rampantly can be witnessed in Orissa and some other states. The structure wherein the migrant labour (called dadan in Orissa) were sent for work outside the state in large construction projects through contractors or agents (Sardars/ Khatedars) , lends itself to several abuses such as no fixed working hour, wages not settled every month as being promised etc.
In Twenty eighth State Labour Ministers conference held in 1976, recommends for setting up of compact committee to scrutinize all issues and suggest measures for curtailment of abuses that is prevalent in present interstate migrant employment, as a result the committee recommended to enact a separate central legislation for the said issue as the provisions of Contract Labour Act, 1970 was unable to take care of this grievance even after several amendment made to it. Thus, led to formation of Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. Thus, major aim is to regulate the employment of interstate migrant workmen by specially providing the conditions of service and for matters connected therewith.
Moreover, the act makes provision for aiding with the onsite service of interstate workers by contractors / establishment to overcome only the temporary shortage of required skilled workers in state. The purpose this enactment is not at all to fortify interstate migration of workers against the interests of local workers as the principal employers would have to incur more cost in deploying interstate workers.
SALIENT FEATURE OF THE ACT
The salient of the act is as under:-
- The proposed legislation will apply to every establishment and contractors that employed five or more inter- State migrant workmen are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.
- Every establishment that is recruiting interstate migrant workmen will be required to be registered with registering officers appointed under either Central Government or State Government as the case maybe. Likewise, every contractor who employ interstate migrant workmen need to obtain a licence from the specified authority both of the State i.e. home state (from where belongs) and the host state (where to be employed).
- The contractor is required to furnish particulars regarding the workmen in the form to be prescribed by rules to the specified authority of both the state as well as to issue to every workman employed by him, a pass book containing the details of the employment.
- The interstate migrant workman will be entitled to a journey allowance in addition to his wages along with displacement allowance.
- Several guidelines has been laid down regarding the wages payable to inter-state migrant workmen which need to paid from the date of his recruitment.
- There are various amenities which need to be provided to the workmen that includes provision of suitable residential accommodation, adequate medical facilities, protective clothing to suit varying climatic conditions and suitable work environment / conditions owing to the fact that they have migrated from another state.
- The provision for appointing an inspector by the appropriate government to keep check on implementation of legislation in full-fledged manner.
- The interstate migrant workmen can raise an industrial dispute arising out of his employment either in the host State or in the home state after the completion of the contract of employment as per his convenience. He might also transfer the proceedings in relation to an industrial dispute pending before an authority in the host state to the corresponding authority in the Home State on the ground that he has returned to the State after the completion of his contract.
- Deterrent punishments have been laid down for the contravention of the provisions of the legislation.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
- Owing to the present miserable condition of migrant worker during the lockdown put forth the failure of migrant workers welfare mechanism as proper implementation of this law would have meant a complete data available with state government as there exist provision regarding registration of these worker, that would have helped state government to better handle this situation but it clearly seems almost no state have implemented this legislation in letter and spirit.
- The major reason why this particular legislation is not so effective is because of onerous requirement set out in the law that would make their employment significantly more expensive than intra-state workmen. As a result this act is yet another law that provides rent seeking opportunities to enterprising government inspector while failing to meet its main objective.
- Another consequence of weak implementation is the absence of government preparedness for implementing such well-meaning though impractical law, in order to implement this law alone, government inspector need not only have to maintain records of inter-state workmen, but also verify whether all other requirements regarding wages, allowances, accommodation and health care are complied with, which is certainly not done.
- Thus , this legislation need to be rationalised enough and made pragmatic enough so that employers and contractors have incentives to come forward and register labourers without being worried about punitive action or impractical social safety requirements.
SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT
- The legislation need to be simplified, which appeared to be onerous for its actual implementation, cost effective for the employer and contractors as well as incentive must be given to the employer so that they themselves come forward and adhere to the provision of this Act.
- These migrant workers should also be provided with the benefits of Public Distributive System Card as other local workers to avoid buying food grain and kerosene at higher price.
- Every state government should mandatorily operate an internet portal indicating the registered principal employers, contractors, establishments and interstate workmen details including Aadhaar card data for general public information and verification. The details of interstate workmen shall be uploaded by the principal employers and contractors promptly. Non-compliance by the principal employers or contractors is treated as violation of the Act and liable for punishment.
- The state government authorities shall conduct mandatory yearly audit of all employers / contractors in a state regarding deployment of interstate workers and submit yearly compliance status or implementation report to the state assembly for their scrutiny.
- Further, social protection architecture should be developed that allows for portability of services like PDS, health insurance, education in order to ensure easy and equal access to migrants.
- There should be equal access to opportunities for resident home and out of state residents. In policy areas, where migrants face discrimination on account of their unique circumstances, special policy initiatives should be framed in order to have equality with state residents.
- Migrant workers have to be integrated into the larger state level policies. India’s social and political rights should wean away from the assumption that people are sedentary and migration as a phenomenon be accepted so that evolving policy framework will fully include migrant labour issues during their formulation.
CONCLUSION
Interstate migration forms a key source of income for the low-income household in India, and despite its growing trend of nearly 4.5% annually between states, migrants still face barriers in their survival in destination States. If one take a look of recent plight of these migrants due to lockdown, certainly proves that this act had proved to be inadequate to address the migrant labourers social and economic marginalisation. What is evident from this sad episode puts into question the very success of the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 (ISMW) and the role of the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) i.e. the one liable for its enforcement. The Act failed to live up to its intended purposes. Was the CLC’s office consulted when the lockdown was planned, and did the CLC provide adequate data required in planning for the lockdown? The exodus of migrant workers in the millions from urban areas would have definitely been managed in far better way had this act implemented properly. Availability of cheap and largely informal labour must not become USP of an economy in the long run. It was this informal labour force that toiled to build the infrastructure that powers the Indian economy. In the absence of a migrant labour workforce, the Indian economy would come to a standstill. It is time that the migrant worker must be treated with respect and dignity they deserve and laws passed for their welfare levels be implemented letter and spirit.
