Madhya Pradesh: Government amends Industrial Relation Act, reserves 70% jobs for locals in industries
15 October 2019: The Madhya Pradesh government has revoked a 2007 notification that had put 11 out of 18 industrial unit categories in the purview of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, reinstating the old Madhya Pradesh Industrial Resolution Act 1960 (MPIR Act) for all industrial unit categories in the state.
The MPIR Act makes lockouts and strikes at factories illegal and allows for registered representative unions to participate in collective bargaining negotiations. Only those unions which have more than 25% membership can be declared ‘representative unions’ and will have priority over other unions in any discussion or agreement or settlement with the management.
Government has also mandated that 70% jobs in all industries including those in the private sector be reserved for persons who are domiciled in Madhya Pradesh. In the past Karnataka and Maharashtra have tried implementing such restrictive reservations but have failed to implement it.
Uttar Pradesh: Smart Watches to monitor Safai Karmcharis
02 October 2019: Amid accidents and number of deaths at the workplace of Safai Karmcharis the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to invest in smart watches to monitor the attendance of sanitation workers. Government has tied up with HCL Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of HCL, to provide GPS enabled smart watches to safai karmcharis in NOIDA which employs over 4,000 workers in sweeping, moping, collecting garbage and cleaning city roads. In the first phase smart watches will be provided to 1,000 safai karmcharis of which the government will buy 500 watches at ₹20,000 while the remaining 500 will be donated by the HCL Foundation. A control room will be set up to monitor the movement of safai karmacharis which would cost an additional ₹2 Crore to the NOIDA Municipal authority while the minimum wages of sanitation workers in the state remain abysmally low at ₹8,278 per month.
