Strengthening the Rule of Law | Legal Reform Ideas for Tamil Nadu
Boosting industrial productivity and workers’ welfare
Introduction
This concept paper is the first in a series exploring legal reform ideas for Tamil Nadu. The legal reforms in this concept paper focus on two themes: (a) industrial productivity and (b) workers’ welfare.
The concept paper will be presented at a closed-door workshop, which will bring together key stakeholders to shape the future of Tamil Nadu’s legal landscape, focusing on strengthening the rule of law to support both economic development and social welfare. The workshop is an opportunity to gather expert insights and collect feedback on proposed legal reform ideas from a diverse group of participants, ensuring that the reforms are practical, effective, and tailored to Tamil Nadu’s unique context, leading to refined, actionable legal reform proposals for the state.
Select ideas from the concept paper series will be collated as part of a briefing book outlining suggested legal reforms for Tamil Nadu.
Key reform ideas
1. Ensuring robust legal safeguards for workers in extended shifts
Tamil Nadu’s labour laws currently mandate a maximum 48-hour work week for factory workers, with a daily cap of 9 hours. The state government attempted to introduce more flexible working arrangements through the Factories (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2023, allowing for 12-hour shifts while maintaining the 48-hour weekly limit, potentially enabling a four-day work week with three days off. However, the proposal met with significant resistance, leading to its swift rollback.
For 12-hour shifts to work within a 48-hour work week, robust safeguards are crucial to prevent potential misuse by employers. Therefore, a holistic approach to amending the Factories Act, 1948 in its application to Tamil Nadu is essential. This approach should simultaneously provide flexibility to allow 12-hour shifts while ensuring strong legal safeguards.
2. Introducing purpose-fit rules for industrial land pooling
The models for residential and industrial land pooling differ in their objectives and implementation, and diverge significantly in their capital intensity, development phasing, stakeholder composition, and return on investment timelines.
The Tamil Nadu government introduced the Tamil Nadu Land Pooling Area Development Scheme Rules, 2024 to promote land consolidation and usage. As such, the land pooling rules do not distinguish between residential and industrial development, overlooking crucial differences in their models. To harness its full potential, the government should consider revising the land pooling rules to incorporate industry-specific considerations in planning, development, and management of land pooling schemes.
3. Amending building regulations to promote efficient land usage
In Tamil Nadu, stringent building standards, while intended to ensure safety and planned development, often lead to unintended negative consequences for land usage, industrial productivity, and urban housing availability. These standards, i.e. floor space index, ground coverage, setbacks, and parking requirements, restrict the efficient utilisation of land by limiting building height, density, and use.
Addressing stringent building standards in Tamil Nadu primarily involves targeted amendments to the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019. Key reforms could start with replacing the current uniform FSI system with a graded model, allowing higher ratios in certain strategic areas. Additionally, ground coverage requirements could be relaxed or eliminated where they are redundant due to other standards like setbacks. Setback norms could be revised in line with modern technological advancements without compromising safety. Parking requirements could be mandated based on actual demand assessments, with provisions to allow unused land, such as setback areas, to double as parking space.
4. Enacting a framework with comprehensive legal safeguards for platform-based gig workers
The platform economy has become a major creator of jobs and vital source of income for persons who undertake gig work for aggregators. However, concerns have been raised that platforms fall short of adhering to fair work principles related to pay, work conditions, contracts, management, representation, etc. Tamil Nadu has more than 1 lakh gig workers, and a majority of them combat income instability, job insecurity, and poor working conditions in extreme weather. Further, the use of algorithmic management by platforms has introduced new complexities in work allocation and performance evaluation, leaving workers feeling powerless and subject to opaque decision-making processes.
In 2023, the Tamil Nadu government extended the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Work) Act, 1982 to cover employment in ‘platform based gig works. The government also established the Tamil Nadu Platform Based Gig Workers’ Welfare Board. These measures, alongside the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers Social Security and Welfare Scheme 2006, impart basic social security to gig workers. However, the existing law does not account for challenges that arise from the unique nature of gig work. Unlike other manual workers, gig workers undertake work for multiple aggregators parallelly, and their nature of work is decentralised. The nature of gig work calls for a new legal framework exclusively catered to platform-based gig workers in Tamil Nadu, which goes beyond social security and incorporates provisions pertaining to fair contracts, accessible and effective mechanisms for raising disputes with aggregators, collective bargaining, reasoned notice prior to termination, legal obligations of platform aggregators, etc.
5. Enhancing women’s labour force participation in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu’s women constitute nearly half of India’s female factory workforce. However, several restrictions, primarily found in labour laws, continue to limit women’s full participation in the workforce. These restrictions encompass night work limitations in certain sectors, prohibitions on hazardous jobs, and restrictions on tasks deemed arduous regardless of individual capability.
The statutes and provisions that limit women’s right to work and may be considered for legal reforms include the Tamil Nadu Plantations Labour Rules, 1955, the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, 1950, the Factories Act, 1948, the Tamil Nadu Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Rules, 1975, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) (Tamil Nadu) Rules, 1983, and the Plantations Labour Act, 1951. These amendments should be accompanied by essential safety measures and support systems, such as enhancing workplace safety protocols, providing safe transportation options for night shift workers, implementing robust anti-harassment policies with clear reporting mechanisms, and providing affordable childcare options near workplaces.
6. Enacting an urban employment guarantee law
The Tamil Nadu Urban Employment Scheme, introduced in 2021, targets the working-age population in Urban Local Bodies (‘ULBs’) in the state, and provides employment opportunities with basic minimum wages. However, a 2023 State Planning Commission assessment revealed significant challenges in relation to the scheme, including beneficiaries’ lack of awareness about work types and wages, low employment days, non-competitive wage rates, allocation of unsuitable work, limited work scope, and poor working conditions.
To address these challenges, the scheme could be transformed into an urban employment guarantee law, providing a legislative guarantee of urban employment for a minimum of 100 days annually, with market-based wage rates determined by local economic conditions and reviewed periodically.
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About the Authors
Manjushree is a Senior Resident Fellow and Team at Vidh, Tamil Nadu. She has previously advised the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and has also advised the International Financial Services Centre Authority. She graduated from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in 2019. Her primary areas of interest are International Economic Law and Competition Law. She is a trained theatre enthusiast, and has featured in several plays directed by the National School of Drama.
Sruthakeerthy is a Research Fellow at Vidhi Tamil Nadu. Prior to this, as a Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow working with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in rural Tamil Nadu, she was involved in the formulation and implementation of policies and action plans to improve the skill development ecosystem, targeted at raising economic output, mitigating unemployment and promoting livelihoods. She has also worked as a Legal Content Analyst at Nyaaya, creating explainers and guides to enhance legal awareness. She graduated with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from NALSAR University of Law in 2020. She enjoys reading, listening to music, singing, and travelling.
