How amending four labour laws spurred Rajasthan’s MSME sector.

Narendra Kumar Jain, president of Employers’ Association of Rajasthan is a happy man, thanks to the labour reforms, initiated in 2014-15 under the then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. “There is industrial peace in the state,” says Jain. Ishwar Chand Agarwal, Chairman of Genus Power Infrastructures Limited, agrees. “For the last 4-5 years, there has been no labour unrest (in Rajasthan)”. In 2014-15, the Raje-led Rajasthan government amended four labour laws: The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947; The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970; The Factories Act, 1948; and The Apprentices Act (1961). Under the amended Industrial Disputes Act, employers could retrench up to 300 employees without permission of the government — this was capped at 100 employees earlier; a worker should raise an objection regarding discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination within three years while there was no time limit earlier; and that the trade union can be formed only if it gets 30 per cent of the total workers as members, up from 15 per cent earlier.