'Work from home' may get legal backing

What started as an ad-hoc measure to bypass Covid-19 induced disruptions, the ‘work from home’ feature will get a legal backing if the Central government approves the Draft Model Standing Orders for the services sector.

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment on Saturday issued a press release saying the Draft Model Standing Orders for the services sector covering a wide range of subjects like work from home, fixed term employment, etc have been released for comments from the stakeholders.

Essentially, these Standing Orders deal with the service conditions of employees and if these proposals get the approval of the government, ‘work from home’ provision will get legal backing.

“Pursuant to section 29 of the Industrial Relations Code 2020, the Central Government has published the draft Model Standing Orders for the Manufacturing Sector, Mining Sector and Service Sector in the official gazette, inviting suggestions/objections from the stakeholders within a period of thirty days,” the release said.

“Keeping in view the needs of the services sector, a separate Model Standing Orders for Services Sector has been prepared for the first time,” it added.

Speaking to ETV Bharat on including ‘work from home’ in the draft guidelines, Dr K.K.H.M Syam Sunder, a former Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, said: “Remote working has its pitfalls and can result in conflicts between employer and employee on a range of issue like working hours, productivity, etc. If these guidelines are formalised, it will pave the way for conflict resolution mechanisms.”

To recall, the Industrial Relations Code 2020 is one of the four laws approved by the Parliament to reform the labour sector to meet the business needs of the 21st century. The other three laws are - The Code on Social Security, The Code on Wages and The Industrial Relations Code. Except for the Code on Wages, the remaining three codes were notified by the government.

‘Fixed Term Employment’ got introduced

In addition to the routine categories of workers like Permanent, Temporary, Probationers, etc, the draft guidelines have come up with the ‘Fixed Term Employment’ concept.

“Fixed term employment means the engagement of a worker on the basis of a written contract of employment with the employer for a fixed period,” said the draft.

“Recruiting employees on a contract-basis and offering fixed-term employment are the same. The only difference is - under fixed term employment, an employee can’t claim permanency. Also, termination of services at the end of a fixed tenure can’t be construed as retrenchment,” said Dr K.K.H.M Syam Sunder.

Notably, he is of the view that this new provision is a liberalisation of labour policies and would help employers in planning human resources as per the fluctuations in the market conditions.

“Businesses go through boom and bust cycles. During a boom, a firm may need more employees and when the businesses are in a bad shape, excess employees can’t be continued. Fixed term employment would help firms in optimising expenditure on human resources,” he added.