Night shifts for women, layoff rules, and more: New labour laws in Delhi soon - Everything we need to know

In a significant development, the Delhi government has made several major changes to labour laws, allowing women employees to work night shifts, but only with their consent. In addition, factories or companies with fewer than 200 employees can now carry out layoffs without requiring prior approval, officials said on Tuesday.

According to a report in the Indian Express, officials from Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s office also said that the Labour Department has been directed to put in place all safeguards by amending the Delhi Shops and Establishment Act and issuing notifications under the Factories Act.

The directions were given for the applicability of the ACT to increase the limit of the minimum number of employees from one to 10 and to allow shops and establishments to work 24/7, and to “increase the threshold of workers from 100 to 200, in the Industrial Dispute Act, for seeking permission for closure.”

Elaborating on the Act further, a senior official from the Labour department said, “Currently, if any factory or a company wants to exit the business and do layoffs, they have to seek clearance from the departments concerned and the authority. But now, if a factory has 200 or fewer employees, they don’t have to seek permission for the closure of the factory and layoffs. This has been done as part of the ease of doing business…”

“The labourers will have options to approach the labour court. At present, if the company wants to exit and they don’t have the profit to pay the labourers in future, there is no point. So, this is part of the ease of doing business," the official said, when questioned about the move’s likely impact on labourers.

In response to it, General Secretary of Shramik Vikas Sanghatan, Krishna Yadav, emphasised that the government to come up with an act to provide compensation to the workers if it allows the factory or industry to do layoffs without seeking permission.

“If the government is allowing a factory or industry to exit the business and do layoffs without seeking permission from any authority. There should also be an act to provide compensation to the workers because they are the ones who will be affected and end up losing jobs without any employee funds or benefits," he said.

What directions were issued for the Fire Department and Delhi Pollution Control Committee?

The government issued a series of directives during a high-level meeting chaired by the Lieutenant Governor and CM Rekha Gupta to assess the progress of key BJP-led initiatives, "Ease of Doing Business" and "Maximum Governance", Minimum Government, both championed by PM Narendra Modi.

As part of the outcomes, the Fire Department was instructed to empanel agencies for third-party audits. This would enable large commercial and industrial units to obtain no-objection certificates (NOCs) based on audit reports from these approved agencies. Smaller establishments may also be given the option of third-party audits, with an expression of interest (EOI) to be floated promptly, an official said.

The department was further asked to update its regulations in light of technological advancements, particularly with the availability of compact firefighting tools like drones and robots, which have rendered older rules regarding road width requirements for fire tenders obsolete.

Additionally, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) was directed to cut the approval time for “consent to operate” to 20 days, after which approval would be deemed automatic. The DPCC must also enable self-certification for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in green and white-category industries, and empanel third-party agencies to handle certifications.