Labour Legislation on Working Conditions for Competitive Advantage

Abstract

Globalization of the world economy and subsequent liberalization of Indian economy in 1991, there is an increasing demand from the industry for reforming archaic labour legislation in order to gain and sustain competitiveness amidst global competition. However, the problem is that reforming labour legislation is a very touchy issue and there are conflicting interest groups involved, which has resulted in lack of initiative of the government to make necessary amendments. At the same time, international concern over fundamental human rights at work and the existence of dangerous working conditions has intensified. Literature review reveals that there are no studies on reforming working conditions regulations especially on competitive advantage as traditionally the focus has been on 'employment relations' rather than 'conditions of work' inspite of the fact that employees spent 80% of their waking life at their workplace