GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS AND LABOUR: NEED FOR BROADENING THE BOUNDARIES AND FRONTIERS OF LABOUR LAWS

Abstract

This paper makes an attempt to assess the impact of the globalfinancial crisis on both the Indian economy and the Indian labour force.Recession set off with the collapse of the US investment bank, LehmanBrothers leading to heavy losses in Asian stock markets. The turmoil in theUS credit markets has affected other countries too, including India. Therehave been major job losses in the banking, financial, insurance segmentand the IT–BPO sector. On the whole about 1.5 million job losses havebeen recorded for the year 2009. The global financial crisis has causedobvious issues in the private sector as to discharge, retrenchment,
redundancy, closure, the rights of workers against insolvent companies andprogrammes dealing with unemployment. The labour laws in India, enactedto protect the interests of the labour, have been ineffective as illustrated bytheir implementation in the BPOs and SEZs in India. In the context of theglobal financial crisis, a comprehensive view on labour market reforms isrequired, one that addresses the need of both employers and workers, andincludes the unorganised sector as well