BLL402 | Labour Law II

Labour Law II is a compulsory course mandated by the Bar Council of India. It is an extension of the Introductory Course on Labour Law-I in which fundamental concepts of labour law in India were taught along with regulations governing Industrial Relations.

This Course develops on those fundamental concepts to introduce students to the key employment-based social security regimes in India, the laws governing the payment of wages, and the occupational safety and health regimes in India. Additionally, the course seeks to discuss constitutional and statutory standards relating to gender equality in the workplace. The course also takes into account the reality of the organised industrial sector being at the periphery of the Indian labour landscape. The vast majority of the workforce in India are employed in the informal sector or the unorganised sector – comprising units operating at a low level of organisation, having limited capital and having flexible relationships of employment. Consequently, the course shall introduce students to some of the key challenges in regulation of informal work and shall look at domestic work and gig and platform work as case studies and concrete examples of types of informal work and the scope for regulation therein.

It is reiterated that the course has been designed to underscore the interconnectedness of different elements of labour protection and will frequently draw upon the conceptual building blocks discussed in Labour Law-I.

The Course will be fundamentally taught through a combination of lectures and discussion around a close and critical reading of the statutes and cases. However, the course also endeavours to extend beyond the confines of doctrinal law and shall be referring to a range of secondary literature and data to situate labour welfare law within the social, political, economic and administrative context within which it operates. Through the lectures, there shall also be an emphasis on how collective demands and labour movements have shaped the law, and how different sectors and constituencies of workers in the country engage with the state and labour regulations.

The Course shall also seek to strongly introduce the students to the changes proposed by the Social Security Code 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Wage Code 2019 through a comparison with the existing statutory regimes.

Some of the key questions that the course explores include:

How do the existing social security legislations create and perpetuate a graded informality among different categories of workers across the country?

What are the different measures of social security available for workers in India? What are the deficiencies in their substance and effect, and why?

How is payment of wages regulated in India? What are the definitional overlaps and differences across various legislations? What are the economic and legal debates on establishing a national minimum wage in India?

What are the various legislations covering occupational safety, and protection against occupational hazards across various sectors? Who are the workers who are excluded from this scheme?

How can we inculcate a critical, interdisciplinary approach in understanding the changing landscape of labour regulations in India?

What are the various gendered implications in addressing labour regulation concerns including, but not limited to, equal remuneration, protection against sexual harassment at the workplace and maternity benefits? Do the problems run deeper than these recurrent concerns?

How do we reconcile the emerging legal landscape in labour laws with the existing regime?