Context: The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. Migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown.
Issue

• The nationwide lockdown has caused immense distress to migrant workers around the country.
• Many of the migrant labourers have been seen trying to walk home to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha from their places of work in Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat etc.
• There is growing concern over the welfare of the migrant labourers and the lack of legal protection for their rights.
• In the immediate aftermath of the lockdown, state governments were taken unawares by inter-state migrants who were desperate to return home. 
• Many had lost jobs, would not be able to afford rent and were afraid of falling seriously ill away from their families.
• The current administration with the intention to consolidate and reform labour law, has introduced the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019.
• The proposed code seeks to merge 13 labour laws into a single piece of legislation. The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, is one of them.

About Inter-State Migrant Workmen act, 1979

• The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 regulates the employment, conditions of service and working conditions of inter-State migrants.

Applicability:

• It is applicable to every establishment that employs five or more migrant workmen from other States; or if it had employed five or more such workmen on any day in the preceding 12 months.
• It is also applicable to contractors who employed a similar number of inter-State workmen.

Provisions:

• The act envisages a system of registration wherein the principal employer is prohibited from employing inter-State workmen without a certificate of registration from the relevant authority.
• Every contractor who recruits workmen from one State for deployment in another State should obtain a licence.

Significance:

• The 1979 act has been an important step towards ensuring labour welfare for migrant labourers.
• The provision for registration creates a system of accountability on the part of employers. It also helps the government keep track of the number of workers employed and provides a legal basis for regulating their conditions of service.
• As part of the licensing process, contractors are bound by certain conditions. These include remuneration payable, hours of work, fixation of wages and other essential amenities in respect of the inter-State migrant workmen.
• As per the act the wage rates, holidays, hours of work and other conditions of service of an inter-State migrant workman shall be the same as those extended to other workmen in the same establishment, if the nature of their work is similar. In no case, shall the wages be lower than what is prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act.

Concerns associated with it

Lack of implementation of 1979 act:

• The lack of serious implementation of the 1979 act has led to the rights of migrant labourers being ignored and they being exploited.
• Concerns regarding consolidation of labour laws:
• The attempt to consolidate laws relating to occupational safety, health and working conditions may lead to the repealing of many separate laws concerning various kinds of workers and labourers.
• The proposed law seeks to repeal 13 Acts such as the Factories Act, Mines Act, Dock Workers’ Act, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, and other enactments relating to those working in plantations, construction, cinema, beedi and cigarette manufacture, motor transport, and the media.
• There are concerns that specific safeguards given to migrant workers may be lost as a result of this consolidation.

Provisions with respect to migrant workers:

• Though the Code contains provisions similar to the 1979 Act regarding registration of establishments, licensing of contractors and the inclusion of terms and conditions on hours of work, wages and amenities and like the 1979 Act envisages the payment of a displacement allowance and a journey allowance to inter-State migrant workers, there are still some concerns.
• Under the proposed occupational safety, health and working conditions code bill, inter-State migrant workers have been included under the definition of ‘contract labour’.
• The Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendations to have a separate chapter for migrant workers and have special provisions for them to ensure their safety and health have not been included.
• The unprecedented distress and misery faced by migrant workers due to the current lockdown indicate the vulnerability of this section and it would be better to have a separate enactment dedicated to the welfare of migrant labourers.