ILO’s Roadmap for developing a policy framework for the inclusion of internal migrant workers in India!
Karma Global Rebuilds Compliances For Businesses With Robust Integration As Cost Of Non-Compliances Could Be More Than Cost Of Compliances !!!!!
Karma Global one of the top 5 labor law consulting firms in the country, has recently hit upon yet another significant milestone in the journey of tying up with SUNDEEP PURI ASSOCIATES AND ADVOCATE, where both these Firms have formally joined hands together to collaborate and create a bigger alliance by scaling up its business on Pan India basis and Internationally to give greater reach of its services together, to its hundreds of clients all over.
The pandemic has changed the very way we do business, disrupting everything from global supply chains to financial markets which subsequently paved the way for change, new adaptations, and rebuilding of business models with compliance being at the heart of this change.
In this context, the Enterprises too need a change in mindset for those who want to remain on the right side of the law. “If the government can change, Corporate and Corporations need to be faster than the regulatory authorities in changing their mindset in this automation game.
Only a few years back, we had compliance people to check and update on compliance conforming to the prevailing laws but now the nature of work is changing and we have platforms that put all the dates, and laws in the form of a checklist for us, which comes as a lifesaver,”
At present, not all but most of the companies have woken up to the reality of this changing compliance landscape with the announcement of the new labor codes, and with it there is a growing trend towards digitization to improve compliance and ensure that organizations are saved from the stiff penalties imposed on defaulters. “Every other day you have a different regulation change happening across numerous States, recent example with Chattisgarh going in for old pensions while other States are opting for new pensions.
We have many vendors who are going towards digitalization to track these compliance and regulation changes,” and Karma Global is proud to have adopted the new AI technology and automation much before others could even think about it. With the changing notifications from the government and the requirement of reporting real-time data to authorities on a monthly/quarterly/half-yearly and annual basis, it is a technology that has set new standards and disrupted traditional methods and practices.
An increasing number of companies today are using a mix of internal and externally developed technology tools to keep pace with the fast-changing compliance landscape and are standing with Karma Global for its state-of-the-art “Weprocess” and “Wechecked” tools that offer advanced features, chatbots, machine learning, single uploading of all documents, and final evaluation together with remediation of noncompliance.
“The compliance scenario in India has gone so far that everything is interconnected. One failure somewhere is going to reflect in many records. We see the government rolling things out step by step to make sure that they have a more robust compliance mechanism and a compliance-driven economy.
So in this regard, besides the business profile of Karma Global relating to labor laws, it will now focus whole time also on legal and para-legal issues and matters with the collaboration of Sundeep Puri & Associates who are already into legal matters such as disputes, litigation, and court cases.
ILO’s Road map for developing a policy framework for the inclusion of internal migrant workers in India!
ILO says All the constituents in India will have to make a conscious effort :
International Labor Organization (ILO) published a detailed report in the earlier year examining the scale and nature of temporary labor migration in India and the relevance of current policy and legal frameworks. In conclusion, it suggests a road map towards catalyzing the inclusion of migrant workers in the legal and policy frameworks.
It said the ILO constituents in India, including the central and state governments, trade unions, and employers’ organizations, will have to make a conscious effort towards improving working conditions for internal migrants. A whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach will be needed to ensure the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations among them.
The foreword concluded by saying that a fair and effective labor migration governance system to address the needs of the migrant workers moving within India will be essential to support a future of work that we all wish to see, especially when we aim to “Build Back Better” from the current crisis.
Plight of migrants during Covid times!
The daily wagers were the worst sufferers of this lockdown. With the enforcement of the lockdown, not only were they without jobs but also were frustrated because of the cessation of their daily income on which they survived. Their very livelihood came to a complete standstill; as a result, they could not meet their as well as their family’s daily needs. The migrants were found to be the most vulnerable among the working class to come under this economic fallout. The situation affected people belonging to all classes; moreover, it has exposed in the bare open the blatant disparities that exist in the socio-economic and healthcare facilities.
In addition, it has been found that the perils of sickness, death, and the mental strain imposed on the common people were especially enormous. One such group that was highly and adversely affected by this crisis situation was the migrants, who had to move out to different parts of the country in search of jobs to sustain their families. There are about 100 million internal migrant workers in India, and most of them are daily-wage laborers who have traveled out from different states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, etc. to other states in search of unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
These migrants too were trapped in the lockdown with no jobs and no money, facing major economic setbacks, besides being isolated from their families due to the sudden lockdown and being stuck in a migrant land with no means to survive. Therefore, this community had to endure more appalling hardships than anyone else, not only financially but also socially and mentally.
What are the different problems that migrant workers continue to face around the country?
Migrant workers in India continue to face several challenges and issues, some of which are:
- Exploitation: often paid less than their local counterparts, poor working conditions, and no job security.
- Lack of legal protection: not covered by many labour laws.
- Poor living conditions: often live in crowded and unhygienic conditions with inadequate facilities for sanitation, clean water, and healthcare.
- Discrimination: based on their ethnicity, language, and place of origin, which can lead to social exclusion and marginalization.
- Lack of documentation: often lack proper identification documents, which makes it difficult for them to access government services, and open bank accounts.
- Forced labour and debt bondage
- Lack of social security: do not have access to social security schemes such as pensions, insurance, and healthcare.
- Lack of awareness: Of their rights and entitlements, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
- There is inadequate coordination among states on a formal exchange of information on migrant workers.
- In the absence of data, it is difficult to track labourers during times of crisis.
What is the legal framework for migrant welfare?
The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, of 1979 mandates that the establishments which employ migrant workers be required to be registered with destination states.
Contractors will also have to obtain a license from the concerned authority of the home as well as host states.
However, this Act has not been fully implemented in practice.
This Act has been subsumed into the 4 labour codes notified by the Centre:
The Code on Wages, 2019;
The Industrial Relations Code, 2020;
The Code on Social Security, 2020; and
The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020.
These have not been implemented yet.
Way ahead:
- To put the four labor codes into effect as soon as possible, the central and state governments must collaborate.
- The welfare measures for the community should include –
- The supply of pulses and edible oil at concessional rates under the PDS,
- Supplementing what is being given under the One Nation One Ration Card
- An exclusive wing can be formed to address the issues and problems migrants face.
- Instituting a fresh and comprehensive study of migrant workers and helping in their integration with the local community.
Best practices adopted by some Indian states:
- In 2012, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh (AP) signed an MoU to track laborers migrating from Odisha to work in brick kilns in the-united AP.
- Kerala has set up facilitation centers (maintain data) for migrant workers whom the state refers to as “guest workers”.
- Jharkhand has started the Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI) in 2021 to generate data and then map the labourers who move out to several states for work.
- The first Jharkkhand Migrant Survey (JMS) was recently conducted across 24 districts of the state.
Conclusion:
- There is a thin line separating nativism and chauvinism, which can be breached at any time.
- Thus, only registering workers in a database will not help unless worker rights are ensured and violations of rights are strictly dealt with.
ILo Revelations In Their Report
The ILO report says and seeks equitable inclusion of migrant workers in India’s policy framework for shaping new programs and interventions to impact the neglected well-being of vulnerable migrant workers.
The plight of migrants caught unawares in the lockdown, has brought to the fore many challenges that circumscribe their social and economic lives in India’s cities and labor markets.
The report further said that the sheer numbers of seasonal and temporary migrants have grown over the years, as has their contribution to the economy, but there is meager improvement in their material conditions. Low and erratically earned wages, informal and casual work engagements, hazardous work leading to poor health conditions, and an all-pervasive presence of labor intermediaries creating debt bondage among migrant workers continue to characterize the experience of seasonal migrants. The absence of essential services and provisioning for migrants – housing, nutrition, sanitation, healthcare, and legal aid – has created a paradigm of extraction rather than investment in workers’ potential, productivity, and agency.
Karma Global works across a wide variety of industries, constantly looking for ways to offer new services and increase its global businesses.
In order to serve today’s technology to tech-savvy clients and employees, Karma Global planned much ahead of its time by adapting to processes and systems to accommodate the quickly changing markets.
As the Industry is continuing to get more and more competitive, Karma Global is bridging the gap, setting itself in tune with the latest technology trends in order to maintain a competitive advantage for all its over 400 domestic and global clients.
Automation and AI – Karma Global was among the first to improve efficiencies, the first in the vendor auditing process to fully automate and streamline any and all processes surrounding the auditing business of entities and vendors.
The chatbot and AI did a fabulous job of giving machine output, with a quicker pace, cheaper rate, and more accurate level of auditing and reporting.
This helped in elevating the roles of our Auditors to focus on complex tasks that require more brainpower or the human touch, leaving some of its tasks to the capabilities of the machine.
Incorporating chatbots in customer service allowed time for our expert representatives to spend time dealing with more complex issues which could ultimately add to the user experience and this is what set us apart from others.
Automating repetitive processes in our systems helped us free the valuable time of our expert staff allowing them to reach out to more clients.
For this purpose, Karma Global has both full-time IT-related staff and also indirect staff who are freelancing with us for enhancing our IT capabilities to the next level on the cloud platform.
Also, clients with issues such as litigation, disputes, closure, lockdown, retrenchment, and layoffs could take the help of Karma Global in sorting this out since it now has a formidable partner by the name of Sundeep Puri & Associates to provide further solutions on such or any legal entanglements.
Proprietary blog of Karma Global Tech Management LLC
This blog has been collated and compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, besides adaptation, illustration, derivation, transformation, collection as well as auto-generation from various sources, for its monthly newsletter Issue 10 of April 2023 and in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the Marketing Team – Kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com