Labour Ministry invites comments on proposed (Amendment) Bill, 2014

Inviting Comment/Suggestions amendment to the Factories Act, 1948

The Ministry of Labour and Employment proposes to amend the Factories Act, 1948. In this regard, important developments along with the tabulated statement on comprehensive amendments to the Factories Act, 1948 have been uploaded on the website of Ministry of Labour and Employment i.e. http:/labour.nic.in.

It is requested that the comments on the proposed amendments may be sent to Deputy Secretary (ISH), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Room No. 303, Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi, 110001 within 30 days from June 5, 2014.

The text is available at http://labour.nic.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/latest_update/what_new/53994ae87860bBriefforNIC.pdf

Brief on Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2014 reads:

"The Factories Act 1948 is an Act to consolidate and amend laws regulating labour in Factories. It is a Central Act which is enforced by the State Governments. The Act was last amended in 1987 after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The Ministry has prepared a comprehensive proposal for amending the Factories Act which is still under consideration."

The present proposed amendments have emanated from the following:

• Recommendations / suggestions given by the Conference of Chief Inspectors of Factories  
• Recommendations of the Expert Committees 
• Need to be in line with various ILO Conventions
• Judgments of Supreme Court / High Courts
• Need for synchronization with Environment Protection Act, 1986 and rules made thereunder.
• These proposals were also discussed in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries and based on the decisions taken therein, the amendments were further modified.
• The proposed amendments deal with 61 Sections and two Schedules.

Important Developments:

i) A Cabinet Note for amendments in the Factories Act, 1948

was submitted in October 2008 which was referred to the Committee of Secretaries.

ii) The Committee of Secretaries examined the matter in January 2009 and made some important recommendations. The proposal was revised accordingly.

iii) The proposal was re-circulated modified and re-submitted to the Cabinet Secretariat in November 2010. An Expert Committee consisting of Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member Planning Commission (Chairman), Dr. Kaushik Basu and Shri P.C. Chaturvedi (Members) was constituted to examine the proposal.

iv) The Committee held extensive discussions with various stakeholders and submitted its report on 23 rd June 2011.

v) The report was examined and requisite amendments were made in the draft proposal. The same were uploaded on the Ministry‘s Website on 06.09.2011 for seeking comments/suggestions.

vi) The report of the Expert Committee was also re-circulated to the Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments and Union Territories.

(vii) After incorporating these suggestions/observations, the draft Cabinet Note was prepared. Thereafter, the Cabinet Note was referred to the Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting by the Legislative Department and clearance

from legal angle by Department of Legal Affairs.

(viii) As per the decision of the Committee of Secretaries on 10.01.2014, the proposed amendments in the Factories Act, 1948 are being placed in public domain (website of Ministry of Labour and Employment) for a period of 30

days for proactively sharing them with public.