Industrial Relations Code, 2020 And The Neo- Liberal Reconstitution Of Labour Governance In India: A Constitutional And Gendered Critique
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Divya Zone, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Law, Kurukshetra University, Haryana
Prof. (Dr.) Preety Jain, Chairperson, Department of Law, Kurukshetra University, Haryana
ABSTRACT
The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 consolidates the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947; the Trade Unions Act, 1926 and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. It is part of the greater labour law reforms of 2020 and aims to make doing business easier, reduce the compliance burden and stimulate industrial growth. Nonetheless, its design is open to the scrutiny of a neo-liberal perspective. This paper claims that Code marks a movement from a welfare oriented labour system to market centre regulatory system. By increasing the threshold for government approval of layoffs and retrenchments, formalisation of fixed term employment and limitations on strike rights, the Code favours managers. The new "negotiating union" mechanism has centralised bargaining to the extent that it may sideline smaller trade unions. Using doctrinal and theoretical tools which are embedded in the fields of political economy and constitutional law, this study examines whether the Code is in consonance with the social justice commitments of India under Article 14, Article 19(1)(c), Article 21 and the Directive Principles of State Policy. It argues that although the reform makes the regulatory process easier and more flexible, it also risks job precariousness, undermines collective bargaining, and undermines worker protections. The paper concludes with a discussion on the necessity of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, and whether it signifies necessary modernisation, or neo-liberal change in favour of capital mobility over substantive labour rights.
Keywords: Industrial Relations Code, 2020; Labour Law Reforms; Neo- liberalism; Labour Market Flexibility; Trade Unions; Collective Bargaining; Right to Strike; Fixed Term Employment; Retrenchment Social Justice; Constitutionalism; Informalisation of Labour; Industrial Dispute; Ease of Doing Business.
