Topics covered:
- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Employment of Local Candidates in Industries and Factories Bill, 2019
What to study?
For prelims and mains: Key features of the bill, need, significance, concerns, challenges and alternatives present.
Context: Andhra Pradesh clears bill granting 75% reservation in jobs for locals in factories.
AP Employment of Local Candidates in Industries and Factories Bill, 2019- highlights:
The bill seeks to provide 75% reservation for locals in factory jobs.
Coverage: The reservation in jobs for local people of the state will extend to industries, factories, joint venture units and projects taken up under Public-Private Partnership initiatives.
The concerned factories will need to take up training programmes of the local workforce in case they don’t have the requisite skills.
Rationale behind this move:
With growth in industries, the demand for land has been increasing. Since most of the land requirement is met by acquiring private agricultural lands, the land owners are being displaced and deprived of their occupation and thereby loss of income.
Local people have complained that industrialisation in their areas have deprived them of means of livelihood.
To address this gap, the government has brought this legislation.
Will it help?
- The Andhra Pradesh government’s proposed law to enforce 75 percent reservation for local candidates in private sector jobs may be right in intent, but conceptually flawed and may have little practical value beyond political jingoism.
- This would mean irrespective of the availability, all private sector enterprises will have to ensure a minimum of 75 percent employment for local candidates.
- In the absence of local candidates of a particular skill level, the law would force the employers to recruit them anyway and train them. The government has promised help to upskill the staff, but this could be time-consuming. Businesses that have to remain nimble to adapt their business strategies to changing market situations may find it tough to meet this requirement.
- A provision of such sweeping import could in fact hinder the state’s economic growth by affecting the ease of doing business. Ease of recruiting talent is a major aspect that influences the index.
- If job creation is the intention, the move may become counterproductive.
Sources: the Hindu.
