Mahindra &Mahindra, Hewlett Packard and Tata group companies are among the more than 800 firms that have submitted a petition to the Ministry of Labour on 16-May-2016, requesting to make all the labour law compliances paperless, a move that they believe will help arrest the depletion of natural resources and improve ease of doing business.
The petition appeals to the government to move all employers and employees' mandatory filing online over the next 24 months as "mandatory paper filing has neither improved the condition of our labour nor ensured better enforcement".
“As the government considers various measures for ease of doing business, we hope moving 100 per cent of labour law compliance under 44 central labour laws as important reform you will consider,” according to a letter undersigned by TeamLease Services Vice President Sonal Arora, on behalf of 828 companies.
The letter stated that companies have to maintain 25 physical registers for service enterprises and 45 for factories.
“Each state mandates a different format under different laws whereas the recipients are common (Factories and Labour department),” said Uma Devaguptapu, Director- HR, Asia-Pac & MEA, Signode Industrial Group and one of the petitioners. “A consolidated paperless compliance reduces the administrative burden, lowers cost resources and offers a reliable database for the organization itself.
It is a low hanging fruit but the most effective step towards improving the enterprise eco-system and there by job creation,” she said in the statement.
"We hope the government will respond by introducing this administrative change that does not require legislative approval. We also hope that this digitization will be accompanied by automation of compliance," Arora, who is also the convener of the petition, said.
Complying with labour laws requires corporates to use 500 crore sheets of paper or 6 lakh trees every year. Besides the environmental destruction, the lack of online submissions creates a huge administrative load for employers, as per the petition.
According to Biren Anshu, AVP, Corporate HR EIH Limited, the Oberoi Group, "the immediate and recurrent challenge on labour law emerges from the fact the laws were enacted in pre digital era, whilst compliances are to be done as per today's business needs and requirement of digital age."
The companies have requested the government to allow employers, employees and trade unions to be able to raise labour disputes through email or website of respective labour departments under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
Source: The Hindu
Picture Source: Pixabay.com
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