On Tuesday, Labour welfare minister Sanjay Kishan tabled 10 amendment bills. Proposal was to decriminalize all the labour laws of the state by replacing the existing criminal penal provisions of imprisonment with civil penalties through hefty fines.
He said, “The rationale behind decriminalization is that imprisonment is too severe a consequence for economic offences that do not involve mala fide.”
The idea is that strong deterrent provisions with heavy penalties will force employers to have watertight internal organizational and operational mechanisms to ensure there are no lapses in compliance. This would protect workers’ rights as well as relieve employers from the fear of imprisonment, he added later.
