A new liberal labour inspection scheme in the offing

It aims at simplyfing 'business regulations' and 'transparency and accountability'

The Labour Ministry has approved a new liberal inspection scheme aimed at simplifying "business regulations" and bringing "transparency and accountability" in the system.

For this purpose, a Central Analysis and Intelligence Unit (CAIU) will be set up to analyse  and collect field level data "for a transparent and accountable labour inspection system."

"This is a step taken in the direction of the ease of doing business by the Labour Ministry," said a ministry official.

Under the new scheme, inspection of the factories will be carried out under 11 Acts including the Minimum wages Act, Contract Labour Act, Child Labour Act, etc.

The inspections would be of a dual nature: mandatory and optional.

The inspection would be mandatory in areas where  a fatal or serious accident has occurred, strikes or lockouts have taken place in the last two years, besides  closed establishments where workers' dues are awaiting settlement.

Optional inspections would take place in case of hazardous factory, establishments which employ 50% or a minimum 20 contract workers and factories with more than 250 employees. The optional inspection would be automatically generated through a system, according to the priorities of the organisation, the ministry said.

Every organisation will also prioritise the areas which require mandatory inspection and the cases forwarded by the CAIU will be on data and evidence basis.

"Each organisation would indicate the criteria which it considers most important from its point of view where the inspections would be mandatory. The optional inspection also would be generated through computer using pre-decided number tables taking into account the priorities of the organisation for bringing in transparency and accountability in labour inspections," a ministry note said.

The employers will feed periodical returns in the system and the inspectors will in turn file detailed inspection report. Certain guidelines for inspectors have also been issued such as maintaining registers, carrying out inspections in normal working hours, uploading the report within three days of inspection, etc.