Labour reforms: Haryana in Rajasthan's footsteps

Haryana govt is mulling changes to the Industrial Disputes Act, the Factories Act and the Contract Labour Act

Following in the footsteps of the Rajasthan government, Haryana is set to change certain labour laws.

The Haryana government is mulling changes to the Industrial Disputes Act, the Factories Act and the Contract Labour Act. This is on the lines of the Rajasthan government, which recently decided to replace these Acts, said Y S Malik, additional chief secretary, Haryana.

The state government has hired Wipro to make industrial taxation go online “to reduce paperwork and restore transparency in tax administration,” he said during an interaction between the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Haryana officials.

Malik said the proposed changes will be sent to the Centre for its consideration.

The Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government had filed its proposed changes to the Union labour ministry on July 3.

The Rajasthan government had proposed the reforms to attract investments. Among its proposed changes is raising the threshold of the number of employees who can be retrenched without government permission from 100 to 300. The Rajasthan government also proposed tweaking the norms in a way the Contract Labour Act will be applicable only to companies with more than 50 workers, compared with 20 now.

Union Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said states could unleash labour law reforms.