REGULATORY UPDATE

• The Government of Uttarakhand has exempted all factories registered under The Factories Act, 1948 in the state from the provision of Section 51 (Weekly Hour), Section 54 (Daily Hour), Section 55 (Interval Of Rest), Section 56 (Spread Hours) with effect from 21-Apr-20 to 20-Jul-20 subject to certain conditions
• The Government of Rajasthan exempt the provisions of Working Hours of Adult workers of the factories Act 1948 for the three months.
• The Government of Gujarat has exempted all factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948 from various provisions related to Section 51 weekly hours, Section 54 daily hours, Section 55 interval for rest etc. of adult workers and Section 56 Spread over hours with certain conditions. These relaxations shall apply from 20th April 2020 to 19th June 2020.
• The Government of Gujarat has declared that the provision of Section 13(3) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and Rule 27 and Rule 29 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) (Gujarat) Rules, 1972 shall not apply upto 15th May 2020 to the Contractors whose License renewal falls in month of March, April and May, 2020
• The Government of Madhya Pradesh exempts all factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948 in the State from all the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 and Madhya Pradesh factories Rules, 1962 for a period of 3 months except section 6, 7, 8 and Section 21 to 41H under chapter 4 about safety and Section 59, 65, 67, 79, 88 and Section 112.
• The Government of  Madhya Pradesh amends the Rule 18 (B) of the Madhya Pradesh Factories Rules, 1962, which specifies the power of concerned Authority to inspect.
• The Government of  Madhya Pradesh exempts new industries which will be registered in the Factories Act, 1948 and start production for the first time in the next 1000 days from the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, for next 1000 days except the provisions of Chapter V-A and Section 25-N, 25-O, 25-P, 25-Q, 25-R of Chapter V-B.
• The Government of  Madhya Pradesh  amends the rules 21(1)(2) which specifies the procedure for making application for license, 26(2) which specifies the fees for renewal of license and 27 which specifies the validity (Period) of license of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Madhya Pradesh Rules, 1973.
• The Government of Madhya Pradesh promulgates the Madhya Pradesh Labour Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, to further amend the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1961 and the Madhya Pradesh Shram Kalyan Nidhi Adhiniyam, 1982.
• The Government of  Madhya Pradesh exempts certain industries from the provision of the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Relations Act, 1960.
• The Government of Punjab has exempted factories registered under The Factories Act, 1948 in the state for three months from provisions of Section 54 and 56 of the Act subject to certain conditions.

SHOP AND ESTABLISHMENT ACT

• The Government of Haryana has issued guidelines to the management of Factories/Establishments in the State of Haryana in the view of prevailing epidemic situation of Corona Virus.
• Principal Secretary, Department Of Labour Haryana has issued advisory to not terminate employees or reduce wages in view of COVID-19 Pandemic.
• The Government of Haryana has decided to create an online service "Application to resume operations of Industrial/Commercial Establishment during Lockdown/Curfew on “Saral” Haryana portal.
• District Administration, Gurugram has issued an order listing out the restrictions imposed on operation of industrial and commercial establishments in the district
• The Government of Uttar Pradesh has issued instruction for Implementation of PMGKY Package in respect of Benefits given by Central Government.
• The District Administration of Gautam Budh Nagar has issued guidelines for Industrial/ Commercial establishments and for residents.
• The Uttar Pradesh Government has issued guidelines for the opening of Industries in state and also issued a Self Declaration Format for the same
• The Government of Uttar Pradesh has requested all the employers to adhere to the Labour departments notification, that is requesting all the employers of public/private establishments not to terminate their employees, particularly casual or contractual workers from job or reduce their wages.
• The Andhra Pradesh Industries and Commerce Department has issued consolidated guidelines for resumption of operations for certain industries with reasonable safeguards.
• The Andhra Pradesh Industries and Commerce Department has provided few relaxations to the Industries in Andhra Pradesh in order to facilitate smooth operations of Industries and Establishments.
• The Andhra Pradesh Industries and Commerce Department has extended the Due- Date of filing of Annual Integrated Return till 31st May 2020.
• The Andhra Pradesh Government has issued detailed guidelines regarding the preventive measures to be implemented by all Offices, Workplaces, and the Establishment.
• The Government of Karnataka issues Advisory to Information Technology, ITES And Business Process Management Sector In Karnataka.
• The Commerce and Industries Department of Karnataka has issued an order regarding the operating of industries/ establishments in Karnataka and introduced COVID-19 Self Declaration Format as a mandatory submission before resuming the operations.
• The Government of Kerala has taken certain resurgence measures like waiving of rent or moratorium on rent for three months and much more after considering the tough economic situation faced by the IT/ ITeS companies/ incubators/ establishments operating from buildings owned by Government IT parks
• The Government of Kerala order that all MSME Units who have rented their units in the buildings or premises owned by the Government, Semi-Governments, Public Sector Undertakings, and Local Self Governments, are exempted from the payment of rent for three months from March 2020.
• The Government of Kerala stated the selected permitted activities allowed with effect from 20th April 2020.
• The Industries, Energy and Labour Department of Maharashtra has ordered all private establishments, factories, companies, shops (excluding essential services), etc. to pay the entire salaries and allowances to their Establishment workers (contractors, employees and workers provided by outsourcing, temporary workers and workers, workers on employment) during lockdown period.
• The Government of Maharashtra, has extended the deadline for employers who have registered for filing Self-Certification-cum-Consolidated Annual Returns under The Maharashtra Shops And Establishments (Regulation Of Employment And Conditions Of Service) Act, 2017 and various labour acts, to 31st July 2020 as many establishments could not file their annual returns for the year 2019 due to the outbreak of COVID 19
• Madhya Pradesh Labour Department has issued a precautionary measure to prevent the transmission of Corona Virus (COVID-19) and instructed all Shop & Commercial Establishment to implement it.
• The Madhya Pradesh Labour Department directs that no shop or commercial establishment situated in the local areas where the Madhya Pradesh Shops and Establishments Act, 1958 is enforced, shall on any days be opened earlier than 06.00 A.M and be kept open later than 12.00 P.M.
• The Rajasthan Government has issued an advisory to industrial and commercial establishment for payment of salaries/wages to the employees or labours without any deduction.
• The Government of Tamil Nadu has issued a Standard Operating Procedure for Social Distancing in Offices, Workplace, Factories and Establishment for control of the spread of COVID-19 in the State.
• The Government of Telangana has extended the date of furnishing of integrated returns for 2019-20 by two months and fixed the date of furnishing of returns as 30th June 2020 as a one time measure.
• The Government of Telangana has declared the lockdown period as a paid holiday for all categories of employees.

CONCLUSION

The “Across the Board” Lockdown has and adverse impact on the business operations as well as the Employee’s. To ease the hardship the Government has issued various Notification / Orders / Circulars / Letters / Press Release from time to time.

Apart from the updates mentioned in the article the Government has also issued Lockdown Orders with guidelines and also revised it several times.

As we know that the situation is still not stable and our economy is hitting up badly So, the Government is and will take further measures to amend the situation as per needed from time to time.

NOTE:

• The above presented data has been captured from notification and circular issued by various concerned authorities and from press release by concerned authorities which are yet to be notified.
• This is an attempt from Lawrbit’s Regulatory update team to help you abreast of the changes in current scenario.
• In this attempt we have covered the development which were linked to the Compliance Framework.