Dispur’s decision to amend laws governing labour and factories in the state has drawn flak from organisations representing workers, who said these are “heavily loaded” in favour of employers and will encourage “hire and fire policy” making the Corona lockdown-hit workers more vulnerable.

Seeking an immediate rollback of the new rules, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), the CPM and the union representing the defunct paper mills, said the changes were “anti-labour” and “cruel action” of the state against the workers when the nation is in lockdown. They said it is a double blow for the workers who are suffering the most.

The Assam cabinet on Friday followed other BJP-ruled states in approving labour reforms in a bid to boost the economy and investment at a time when economic activities have come to a grinding halt due to the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The states have the power to make this change in the Factories Act through a provision in the law, without seeking the approval of the central government.

The measures in the labour reforms include:

• Introduction of fixed-term employment and increase in shift duty of workers during Covid-19 period from eight to 12 hours.
• Number of minimum employees for implementation of the Factories Act has also been doubled from existing figures for various categories of factories while those with fewer employees have been exempted from registration.
• Minimum number of workers for implementation of the Contract Labour Act has also been increased from 20 to 50.

The general secretary, Citu Assam unit, Tapan Sharma, told The Telegraph, “Fixed term employment is like hire and fire policy. We are opposed to the proposed amendment.”

He also said maximum industries have less than 40 workers in Assam. “If the new changes are implemented, no labour laws will be applied and small-industry workers probably will lose their legitimate dues. Workers will be deprived of the right to get the minimum wage. These so-called labour reforms are anti-labour and loaded in favour of employers. These orders will only compound workers’ miseries,” he said.

Suprakash Talukdar, a member of the CPM, said, “The BJP-led state government is hurriedly pushing through labour reforms with the sole intention of making labour cheap and vulnerable to the whims of the owners.”

The Joint Action Committee of Recognized Unions Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills demanded withdrawal of the “draconian” policies.

The Assam employment and labour department did not respond to this correspondent’s calls.