The fresh violence at Pricol, Coimbatore almost a year after the Graziano incident in Greater Noida have provoked India Inc to renew their call for long pending labour law reform to bring them in sync with industrial reality.

While no violence has been reported from giants like Hyundai Motor India, there have been instances of frequent strikes at the company?s plant in Chennai. Subsequently the country?s second largest passenger car manufacturer is thinking of shifting production of i20 to Europe.

It is ironical that Tamil Nadu, which is one of the largest clusters of industrialisation with players from industries like auto, auto components, mobile and consumer durables, thanks to the large incentives being offered by the state, is most affected by labour issues. As per Labour Bureau data, Indian industry lost 11,44,719 mandays due to strikes in 2007-08 and Tamil Nadu was the worst hit, losing 3.83 lakh mandays.

The top officials of companies across different sector that FE spoke to attribute this to existence of large number of regional and caste-based trade unions in southern India, lack of mature union leaders and the entry of new age workmen into the system.

?Lately, there has been an emergence of large number of caste-based trade unions in southern part of the country with their own vested interest. It is the leaders of these trade unions as well as leaders of several small parties who promote lot of violence in the state,? a top official of Chennai-based company said on conditions of anonymity. Therefore India Inc is mooting tightening of a procedure of registering trade unions by overhauling the Trade Unions Act of 1926.

?Indian labour laws are several decades old and we need to amend it in a way that even union leaders are made accountable of any violence, similar to the responsibility that is being vested with the company officials,? added another top executive. For instance, the Industrial Dispute Act was formulated in 1947 and it has seen very little reform since Independence.

The country has 43 central labour laws and several state labour laws. Though the government is trying to simplify and reduce the number of these multiple laws, there has been little progress.

In fact, the issue of labour reforms has been one of the priority areas of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. ?Problems of labour rigidity and labour flexibility are still hurdles in India realising its chosen destiny,? the Prime Minister had said in 2007. While the UPA could not do much on labour reforms in its first innings because of the Left, its then coalition partner, it is to be seen what reforms come in the second tenure of the UPA regime

Incidentally last year, post the death incident of LK Choudhary of Graziano Transmissions at Greater Noida on September 22, 2008, the then labour and employment minister Oscar Fernandes had first linked it on India Inc?s insistence on hiring workers on contract but later apologised for it, the current labour minister strongly condemns the Pricol incidence.

The way out, according to most players who have set up bases in Tamil Nadu, is the setting up of a zonal Industrial Relation Committee, to be headed by deputy labour commissioner who would hold regular meetings to ensure smooth relationship between the management and trade unions.

Further, the government intervention is required in such matters and even the human resource department in all companies should develop a good intelligence system to get the first hand information of any such incident, much before it happens.

?There is an urgent need for better enforcement of law in the country. It is necessary that the Centre and state governments step in and ensure effective implementation of law and order, especially in the major auto component clusters concentrated in the states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana as recurrence of such incidences will result in people losing their confidence in the law and its enforcing authorities,? Jayant Davar, president, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association said.

The National Commission of Enterprise in unorganised sector had submitted a blueprint for rationalising the country labour laws to the Prime Minister in April this year. While the government is still examining the report, labour ministry has set up a committee to review and recommend changes to the Contract Labour Act of 1970. At the same time the National Labour Institute has also been asked to look at overall labour legislations.