workers

Echelons of labour in the production process are investigated. There is labour directed at the flow of output. Unproductive work also exists. It is concluded that the government expenditure supports production, and the taxation of unearned incomes should be 100%.

The minimum wage policy is regarded as an essential tool for improving the welfare of low-paid workers, reducing inequality and poverty within the labour market. The Government of India recently reformed the country’s wage policy and enacted the Code on Wages in August 2019. To give effect to the code, the government has now outlined the implementation mechanism by notifying the draft Code on Wages (Central) Rules in July 2020. This paper examines some of the key reform measures undertaken in the wage code and the implementation mechanism, as provided in the draft wage rules, identifies shortcomings therein, and provides suggestions for improvement.

Passage from India to America: Billionaire Engineers, Extremist Politics & Advantage to Canada & China by Ignatius Chithelen, Bryant Park Publishers LLC, New York, 2018; pp 212, $40.95 (hardcover).

The closure of Nokia's mobile phone assembly plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, just eight years after it commenced production, illustrates how corporations can quit operations at a point when it is no longer profitable for them to continue, while the impact of such closures on workers is profound. The special economic zones policy of the state actively promoted corporate-led industrialisation promising employment, and creating aspirations among young workers. There was no accountability or labour-centred exit policies factored into the state's industrial policies when state governments welcomed private investments. With the closure of Nokia, not only have promises been broken, but its workers and supply companies have lost their livelihoods and future possibilities of work. 

Focusing on female migrant domestic workers from Jharkhand, this article looks at their lives before and after migration. Jharkhand witnesses heavy migration and mobility to cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, especially female migration. Girls and young women coming from marginalised communities migrate through different means and organisations like placement agencies, religious institutions or with the help of friends or relatives. Most of them get into the unorganised sector such as domestic work. Lack of social security measures continues to be a major challenge and a source of distress for these workers.