The Governor of Madhya Pradesh promulgated the Labour Laws (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. This Ordinance came into force on 20th August 2020.
The key changes introduced by this Amendment Ordinance are as follows:
Amendments to the Factory Act, 1948 in its application to the State of Madhya Pradesh
The definition of “factory” is modified by increasing the number of requisite workers engaged in a premise for it to constitute a factory under this Amendment Act.
This Amendment Act provides that a premise or its precincts, that uses power to carry on a manufacturing process, will qualify as a factory if it has at least 50 workers working on any day in the preceding 12 months.
Furthermore, the Ordinance does away with the provision in respect of premises carrying on manufacturing processes without the aid of power from the definition of factory. Hence now, premises carrying on manufacturing processes without the aid of power will not be a factory for the purposes of the application of the Factory Act, 1948 in the state of Madhya Pradesh, irrespective of the number of employees working in such premises.
Prior to this Amendment Ordinance, and under the original Factories Act, 1948, premises where a manufacturing process was being carried on without the aid of power, constituted a factory if there were at least 20 workers employed on any given day in the last 12 months. This provision will no longer be applied to the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Amendments to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, in its application to the State of Madhya Pradesh
The application of the Act is modified by increasing the number of requisite workmen engaged as contract labour in a given establishment
As a result of the Amendment Ordinance, the Contract Labour Act, 1970 will now apply to every establishment/ contractor that employs at least 50 workmen as contract labour on any day in the preceding 12 months.
However, the State Government can apply the provisions of this Act to any establishment/ contractor employing less than 50 workmen as contract labour as it may specify by a notification. In such an instance the Government is required to give two months’ notice of its intention to avail this provision in the same notification.
Prior to this Amendment Ordinance, in order to invoke the application of the Contract Labour Act, 1970, the requisite number of workmen employed as contract labour in the preceding 12 months was 20.
