Changes to Labour Laws: Good or Bad? A Debate

They argue that it is unjust to bring such changes to labour laws during the time of crisis perpetuated by Coronavirus and subsequent lockdown since the labourers and workers have been the most vulnerable and need more social security at such time.

 The new changes intended to give the employers the freedom to hire and to lay off workers from their jobs as per their business requirement. These changes can also allow employers to hire workers for longer shifts which can be as long as 12 hours a day than previous maximum working hours of less than 8.

They are worried and concerned that the flexibility given to employers to retrench workers can be used to exploit employees by making them work for longer duration at a relatively low wage compared to the number of hours they work.

Moreover, employers can also coerce them to work for more hours since the workers would be fearful of losing their jobs when they don’t even have access to unemployment benefits by the government. In addition to the above-mentioned atrocities, the right to form trade Unions has also been scrapped by the new changes to labour laws.