Firms to file lesser number of forms/reports under labour laws

To lessen the burden of compliance on establishments, the government has reduced the number of forms and reports from 36 to 12 under labour law to improve ease of doing business.
The "rationalisation of forms and reports under certain labour laws rules, 2017" has reduced the number of forms and reports prescribed under three Acts and the rules made thereunder from 36 to 12, Labour Ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the aim of the exercise is to make the forms and reports easy to understand.
This will save efforts, costs and lessen the compliance burden of various establishments, it said.

As per the 6th Economic Census of Central Statistical Office, conducted during 2013-2014, there are about 5.85 crore establishments in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors of the country.
The government has undertaken an exercise to promote ease of compliance of labour laws and rules by various establishments, it said.

The ministry said that while reviewing the requirement of filing forms under various Labour Laws, it was observed that 36 forms prescribed under three Acts and the rules made thereunder had several overlapping/redundant fields.
Therefore, an exercise was undertaken by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to do away with overlapping fields and reduce the number of forms, it said.

An intention notification for reducing the number of forms and reports was placed in the public domain on February 9, 2017 and objections and suggestions thereon were sought from all stake-holders.
The labour laws under which these forms are filed include The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 and The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.