How flexibility of labour laws could become a double-edged sword for states

Tamil Nadu walks back a key labour law amendment introducing flexibility in work hours that would have benefited foreign manufacturers with export targets, such as Apple's vendors

It came as a bolt in the blue. On Monday, confronted by stiff opposition from trade unions and political parties of all hues, from the Congress to the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin announced that his government would withdraw the contentious amendment to the Factories Act that the Assembly passed a few weeks ago.

The changes in the Act were aimed at providing flexible hours mainly to niche global electronics companies such as Apple Inc to ramp up production for exports.

Top state officials went into a huddle