INTRODUCTION
The law referring to labour and employment in India is primarily known under the broad category of "Industrial Law". Industrial law during this country is of recent vintage and has developed in relation to the vastly increased awakening of the workers of their rights, particularly after the appearance of Independence. Industrial relations embrace a fancy of relationships between the workers, employers and government, basically concerned with the determination of the terms of employment and conditions of labour of the workers. Escalating expectations of the workers, the hopes extended by state, uncertainties caused by tremendous structural developments in industry, the decline of authority, the waning attraction of the work ethics and political activism within the industrial field, all seem to own played some role.
Labour Laws is that the Body of laws, administrative ruling and precedents‖ which addresses the connection between and among ―Employers, Employees & Labour Organisations which coping with labour issues. Labour Laws as word ―LAWS‖ shows isn't one law but a cluster of various Acts, Rules and Regulations enacted by Parliament of India and different States Legislatures. In India Labour Laws covers most varieties of industries with Differentiation of enactments for various type of industries as per the character of these industries like Dock Workers, Coal Mines Workers, and Plantation Workers etc. There are different laws to manage their employment and conditions of service also with different subjects.
The labour laws in India not only cater to industrial relations (i.e. relations between the employers and employees), but also relate to payment of wages, working conditions, Social Security, etc. Additionally, there are several labour laws which regulate service conditions in specific industries, like building and construction work, pharmaceuticals, dockyards, and mines. additionally, these labour laws also provide for various compliances in accordance with the procedures laid down therein. This chapter provides an insight into the laws and regulations applicable in India to labour and industrial matters.
In the current Indian economic environment, which is marked by globalised economy, liberalisation in trade, enhanced competition and ongoing technological advancement, rationalisation of manpower is one of the most effective keys to the efficiency of any organisation. Rationalisation of manpower doesn't merely mean reduction / retrenchment of employees. What it really means is reorganisation of the present manpower such their utilisation and output will be optimised. Hence, we've got had companies approach us within the previous couple of months for assistance not only in reference to retrenchment of employees and closure of certain offices, but also for: transfer of employees pursuant to transfer of business as a „going concern‟; offer of relocation options to employees on account of closure of a business unit or cessation of a line of business at a specific location; redefining of responsibilities pursuant to new business opportunities; identifying groups to undergo technical training to stay up with and implement new innovations; etc. While ending any of the aforesaid rationalisation options, it's imperative that the organisation balances commercial requirements with the legal framework.
Labour Laws also called employment law(is the body of laws), administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights and restrictions on working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the link between trade unions, employers and employees. In other words, Labour law defines the rights and obligations as workers, union members and employers within the workplace. Generally, Labour Law covers:
• Industrial relations – certification of unions, labour‐management relations, talks and unfair labour practices
• Workplace health and safety
• Employment standards, including general holidays, annual leave, working hours, Unfair dismissals, earnings, layoff procedures and severance pay.
There are two broad categories of labour law. First, collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer and union. Second, individual labour law concerns employees' rights at work and thru the contract for work. The labour movement has been instrumental within the enacting of laws protecting labour rights within the 19th and 20th centuries. Labour rights are integral to the social and economic development since the commercial revolution.
Organizational Effectiveness and Labour Management Relations
The productivity growth and performance in recent years has drawn increasing attention to the economic relations system and various strategies for improving its performance. this is often resulting in a brand new era of experimentation at the organizational level with various worker participation programs, new local dialogue agreements, and changes in other employment practices that are designed to both improve industrial relations and organizational effectiveness. These pressures also are producing a brand new emphasis within management on applying strategic planning techniques to the commercial relations function as firms and unions begin to acknowledge the interdependence among broad business policy decisions and industrial relations performance at the workplace level. Consequently, industrial relations professionals within both management and unions are being called upon to critically examine their prevailing practices and to assess alternative strategies that satisfy organizational and worker goals.
Unfortunately, the economic relations profession has been slow in developing the kind of analytical capacity required to support these experimentation, planning, and evaluation processes. Instead, there historically has been an aversion among many industrial relations managers and labour representatives to the thought of quantitative assessment of commercial relations practices and performance. Few firms, for instance, systematically collect and analyze industrial relations activity or performance data. Even fewer try to relate variations in industrial relations outcomes over time or across locations to indicators of organizational effectiveness or worker well being. Indeed, except for the analysis of the results of unions on wages and other job and organizational outcomes (Freeman and Medoff, 1981; Kochan and Helfman, 1981), we've little theoretical or empirical work that attempts to relate industrial relations outcomes to management and worker goals. Thus, industrial relations professionals are currently in an exceedingly poor position to forecast or explain how various change strategies might influence organizational effectiveness and, more importantly, are poorly equipped to guage the consequences of those change efforts.
Organizational Effectiveness and Job Satisfaction, Motivation
The management of individuals at work is an integral a part of the management process. to know the critical importance of individuals within the organization is to acknowledge that the human element and also the organization are synonymous. A well-managed organization usually sees an average worker as the root source of quality and productivity gains. Such organizations don't look to capital investment, but to employees, because the fundamental source of improvement. a corporation is effective to the degree to which it achieves its goals. an efficient organization will confirm that there is a spirit of cooperation and sense of commitment and satisfaction within the sphere of its influence.
Various studies concluded that factors empowerment and recognition have positive effect on employee motivation. More the empowerment and recognition of employees in a corporation is increased, more will their motivation to figure will enhance. Also there exists a positive relationship between employee motivation and organizational effectiveness. The more the workers are motive to tasks accomplishment higher will the organizational performance and success.
The current era is very competitive and organizations no matter size, technology and market focus face employee retention challenges. to beat these restraints a robust and positive relationship and bonding should be created and maintained between employees and their organisations. Human resource or employees of any organization are the most central part so they have to be influenced and persuaded towards tasks fulfilment. For achieving prosperity, organizations design different strategies to compete with the competitors and for increasing the performance of the organizations. A very few organizations believe that the human personnel and employees of any organization are its main assets which might lead them to success or if not focused well, to decline. Unless and until, the staff of any organization are satisfied with it, are motivated for the tasks fulfilment and goals achievements and encouraged, none of the organization can progress or achieve success. the aim is to research the impact of employees‘ motivation and job satisfaction on organizational effectiveness.
Organizational Effectiveness and Employee Productivity
Every employee contributes to organizational effectiveness. Taking under consideration skills, experience, motivation, and rank, some play an even bigger role than others to grasp more about the weather of effective organisation and their connection towards productivity.
Today, contemporary organizations are indicated by such constantly altering dynamics because the complexity of personalization, and competition needs of individuals rather than methods reliance upon technology and also the increase of the understanding economy among variety of other challenges, Indeed, this is often actually the more reason employee development is important towards the success and survival of the organization now plenty over before. Today, the mission for responsible organizational productivity now involves, education encouragement, strengthening the staff to compete better. Employee productivity is all about drawing people together to get the tasks accomplished, which supply the organizational mission. With this position and energy comes great responsibility. The duty to look after the workers and increase their productivity is simply the task of the organisations.
As organizations moreover as their conditions have changed rapidly within the last years, a innovative type of development activities and clarity of goals and much more democratic environment is required to be ready to ensure the organization‘s survival and gratification. It's contended that progressive organisational culture has an optimistic effect on the employee‘s productivity of the organization. Thus the performance of various people who culminates within the productivity of the organization, or perhaps within the achievement of organizational goals. Effective regular training becomes instrumental in making organizational performance.
Organizational Effectiveness and Employee Retention
Employee retention refers to the ability of an organization to retain its employees. A distinction should be drawn between low performing employees and top performers, and efforts to retain employees should be targeted at valuable, contributing employees. ratio could be a symptom of a deeper issue that has not been resolved. These deeper issues may include low employee morale, absence of a transparent career path, lack of recognition, poor employee-manager relationships or many other issues. a scarcity of satisfaction and commitment to the organization can even cause an employee to withdraw and start trying to find other opportunities. Fitz-enz (1997) stated that the typical company loses approximately $1 million with every 10 managerial and professional employees who leave the organization. As mentioned previously, the combined direct and indirect costs related to one employee ranges from a minimum of 1 year‘s pay and benefits to a maximum of two years‘ pay and benefits. Thus, there's significant economic impact when a corporation loses any of its critical employees, especially given the knowledge that's lost with the employee‘s departure. it'll become significantly more important within the years ahead to acknowledge the commitment of people to a company, still because the organization‘s must create an environment during which one would be willing to remain (Harris, 2000).
Organizations will have to either create an intellectual capital environment where the transmission of information takes place throughout the structure, or still lose important individual knowledge that has been developed during the length of service (Harris, 2000). This deep knowledge is what many believe will help to fulfill the requirements and expectations of the staff and to make and sustain a competitive advantage within the world economy within which organizations are competing in today. Recent changes within the employment conditions have resulted in increased exposure of workers to unfavourable job characteristics and to consequential increases in adverse individual and organizational health outcomes (Mansell et al., 2006). thanks to increased competition, globalisation and demand for efficiency, many organizations have adopted the strategy of restructuring and downsizing (Ugboro, 2006; Hirsch, 1987; Cameron et al., 1993). This has resulted in feelings of job insecurity, low commitment (Rousseau, 1996; Rosseau & Libuser, 1997), intent to quit among the workers and increased turnover (Cohen 1993, Hunt & Morgan, 1994). Voluntary turnover of high performing employees could be a serious threat to the effectiveness of restructuring and downsizing strategy (Mueller et al., 1984) and also to the organisational sustainability.
High turnover creates problem both for the organizations (Huang, 2006) still as for his or her customers. Departing employees remove a good deal of accumulated knowledge with them (Mitchell, 2001). Besides, the price of replacing an employee is estimated to be twice an individual‘s annual salary. Further, training and developing new recruits to bring them to the specified level of performance requires heavy investment in terms of your time, money and other resources (Mitchell, 2001). An in-depth review of ratio costs helps managers to achieve insight about the magnitude and determinants of this managerial challenge and assess the implications for organizational effectiveness.
Acts and Bodies
(a) Labour Laws enacted by the Central Government, where the Central Government has the sole responsibility for enforcement
- The Employees‘ State Insurance Act, 1948
- The Employees‘ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act,
(b) Labour Laws enacted by Central and enforced by both the Central as well as the State Governments
- The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.
- The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
- The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
- The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
- The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
- The Minimum Wages Act, 1948
- The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
- The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972
- The Payment of Wages Act, 1936
- The Apprentices Act, 1961
(c) Labour Laws enacted by Central Government and enforced by the State Governments
- The Factories Act, 1948
- The Trade Unions Act, 1926
- The Workmen‘s Compensation Act, 1923
CONCLUSION
The emergence of labour regulations in India are often traced back to the amount of British rule India. Crucial labour laws governing various aspects of labor were, however, passed in quick succession of each other after Independence. And since 1947, there has been an entire change within the approach to labour legislation. the essential philosophy itself underwent a change and therefore the ideas of social justice and state as enshrined within the Constitution of India became the guiding principles for the formulation of labour regulations. The Constitution made specific mention of the duties that the state owes to labour for his or her social regeneration and economic upliftment. One of the significant duty to make effective provision for securing employees interest within the case of unemployment, old age, sickness, disablement and other cases of undeserved want.
In an independent democratic country like India, it absolutely was wanted that the rights of employers to rent, dismiss and alter conditions of employment to the workers’ detriments were subjected to judicial scrutiny. Accordingly, the economic Disputes Act (IDA) enacted in 1947 provided protection to the workmen against layoffs, retrenchment and closure and for creation, maintenance and promotion of business peace in industrial enterprises. This Act was later amended in 1972, 1976, and in 1982 seemingly giving progressively greater protection to workers. Factories Act 1948, which replaced the one passed in 1884, aims at regulating the conditions of labor in manufacturing establishments and to confirm adequate safety, sanitary, health, welfare measures, hours of labor, leave with wages and weekly off for workers employed in ‘factories’ defined as establishments employing 10 or more workers using power and above 20 workers without use of power. Similarly, the remuneration Act 1948 is that the most vital legislation that was expected to assist unorganised workers survive despite the dearth of bargaining power. The minimum wages for scheduled employment are to be fixed and periodically revised by the central and state governments in their respective spheres. The Act could also be applied to each employment within which talks failed to operate and purports to mend the minimum wages in such a way on enable the concerned workers subsist a minimum of above the official personal income.
Requires the employers to classify workers into different categories as permanent, contractual and apprentices. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 regulates the use of contract labour and prohibits its use in certain circumstances. It applies to any or all establishments and contractors who currently or within the preceding year employed a minimum of 20 contract workers. the concept behind this Act is to forestall denial of job security in cases where it's feasible and of social insurance where it's legitimate legal entitlement. within the sphere of Social Security, Employees State Insurance Act (ESIA) was introduced in 1948, providing compulsory insurance to the workers. The Act provides for a welfare scheme ensuring certain benefits within the event of sickness, maternity and employment injury to workmen employed in or in reference to, the work of non-seasonal factories. The Act has prescribed self-contained code in relevancy the insurance of employees covered by it. Besides the above major laws there are several others that are enacted for improving the condition of employment and protecting the general welfare of commercial workers after Independence in India.
At the concluding of the study , It must be recognised that although the protection of labour has been the first motivation, introducing various measures of labour regulation, there's an implicit assumption just in case of most of them that they're good for industry also. There looked as if it would be a transparent recognition and understanding of employee treatment, well-being and security make the workforce more efficient and productive and it's, therefore, within the interest of the industry to supply good working conditions, social insurance against the risks at work and in life and an assurance that a worker won't be off from job unfairly or without adequate notice and compensation. it's also obviously within the interest of both workers and industry to have industrial peace and therefore a mechanism for grievances and settlement of disputes should be welcome to both. Thus, regulation of various aspects of employment, conditions of labor, social insurance, job security and industrial relations are deemed to be parts of accord and customarily accepted and honoured both by workers and employers.