About the Book

The book discusses some issues relating to labour such as the framework of the laws, industrial relations, wages and incomes and workers education, etc. The basic theme of the book relating to the labour laws is that although there is a multiplicity of labour laws in India yet these do not come up to international standards. The remedy is not to enact more laws but to replace them by a basic law covering all workers and protecting their basic rights. The frame work of a basic law is also given. As regards industrial relations, it pleads for a cooperative and participatory approach in place of the prevalent adversarial relationship based on conflict of interests. It also discusses the various issues relating to the fixation and revision of wages at the minimum level and at levels above the minimum and the problems of regulating incomes and prices. The volume advocates the need for education of workers especially in the rural and unorganized sector to make them aware of their rights and liabilities, and to enable them to participate in management effectively and to contribute to the national policies of family planning, productivity, etc., by adopting the laboratory method. The book may be useful for policy makers, students and scholars of Labour Economics and Labour laws.

About Author

Sri R.K.A. Subrahmanya, a post graduate in economics joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in 1950. He was appointed Addl. Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labour in 1979 where he was mainly concerned with labour welfare, social security and wages. He represented the GoI in the International Labour Conferences held in Geneva for four years out of which he was elected as Chairman of Conference Committees, including the one on Social Dimensions of Industrialisation in three consecutive years. He was a member of a committee set up by the ILO for studying the future of social security in developing countries. He was a member of the International Social Security Association for full five years. He was also appointed as a Member of the A.P. Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad. He was the founder Secretary General of the Social Security Association of India for nearly twenty years. He was the Coordinator of the Research Project called Simplification Rationalisation and Consolidation of Labour Laws and was largely responsible for the production of the book India Labour Code 1994. His two volume book on Law on Employment has been published by Lexis Nexis Butterworths. Sri Subrahmanya was the Chairman of the Study Group on Social Security set up by the National Commission on Labour. He was awarded a Medal of Merit for his contribution to the cause of social security by the International Social Security Association in the year 2000. [ssanantha@yahoo.com]

Contents

Foreword v
Preface vii
I. Labour Laws in India
II. Rationale of Labour Laws
III. Reform of Labour Laws
IV. Labour Law Enforcement
V. Major Issues Concerning Labour
VI. Globalisation and its Impact on Labour
VII. Problems of Unorganised Labour
VIII. Legislation for Unorganised Workers
IX. Labour Management Issues in the Third World
X. Industrial Relations
XI. Working Class Movement
XII. Trade Unions
XIII. Workers' Participation in Management
XIV. Wages and Incomes Policy: The Indian Experience
XV. Workers Education
Index

Additional Info.