NE LEGAL BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, AUG 11
The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the state government on a petition challenging the Factories (Gujarat Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, and calling it “violative” of the basic human rights of factory workers.
The ordinance, promulgated last month, seeks to withdraw protections given to factory workers with regards to their health, safety, hygienic working conditions and working hours, among others things, said the petition filed by the Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha (GMS).
A division bench of Justices R M Chhaya and I J Vora issued notice to the state government returnable on September 3 on the petition.
The GMS said the amendment (through the ordinance) to the Factories Act, 1948, by the state government seeks to “withdraw all sorts of protections given to the workers employed to the extent of 40 in the power-aided factories, and 20 in the factories running without the aid of power.”
As per the ordinance, such industrial units stand excluded from the definition of the factory under the Act and safeguards provided to workers under the legislation shall not be applicable to them, the petition said.
There are a large number of such factories in Gujarat, it said.
Section 106B of the ordinance further authorises the government to make any or all offences under the Act “compoundable,” making it “toothless,” and making employer “immune to penal actions for violating provisions in respect of workers” health and hygiene, safety, hazardous processes, welfare, working hours,” the petitioner said.
“Ultimately, workmen employed in the factory would be forced labour which is prohibited under Article 23 of the Constitution,” said the plea by the trade union, which represents the interest of workmen in industrial establishments with 10-20 staff strength.
The GMS, through its lawyer Mahesh Bhatt, has sought to hold the ordinance, promulgated by the Governor on July 1, 2020, as “absolutely unconstitutional, arbitrary, discriminatory and consequently strike down the same as being ultra vires the Constitution of India.”
“The ordinance is against the basic human rights of the factory workers and the basic norms in respect to the health and hygiene and safety measures of industrial workers accepted internationally,” the petition said.
The ordinance is “violative of basic human rights and fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India,” it said.
