Amendment of the Apprentices Act

Today India is grappling with issues concerning the outdated Labor Laws in India. The government has decided to revamp certain laws which it thinks are not relevant in today’s age in its current form. This is necessary since India has to keep up with the ILO and follow its mandate .In this regard we can look at one of the amendments to the “Apprentices Act 1961” recently brought about.  Some of the important points have been discussed below-

1. Section 3 has been amended to include the fact that for hazardous industries minimum age for recruitment of an apprentice will be 18 years.

2. Now the employer may engage apprentices from other states rather than only the native state.

3. Holidays, leaves and shift timings for apprentices to be at par with  regular workers.

4. Employers can now only be imposed fine of Rs 1000 for not adhering to provisions of the act rather than getting imprisoned.

5. Novation of contract of apprenticeship has been removed from the act.

This amendment, the government hopes will make the Apprentice Act more relevant in today’s India. It will be interesting to see how the government approaches some of the other backdated labor laws like “The Factories act”.