Investor considerations
· Labor laws give rights to employees to form trade unions, and most wages in the organized sector are governed by trade union agreements.
· Retrenchment of a permanent labor force is difficult and expensive.
· Minimum wages in the organized sector are regulated by legislation.
· Employers must contribute to social security and medical insurance.
· There is a visa requirement for foreign nationals.
· A work permit as such is not required for foreign nationals working in India, but permission to sty is required from the government. Reserve Bank permission is no longer required to employ foreigners.
Labor relations
Availability of labor
India has a large pool of skilled, semiskilled and unskilled labor. There is an adequate supply of office staff in most parts of the country. A considerable number of applicants for management and supervisory posts have qualifications from recognized professional institutions and Indian universities.
Employer / employee relations
The Industrial Disputes Act seeks to regulate industrial relations in the country. Its main objective is to provide for a just and equitable settlement of disputes by negotiation, conciliation, mediation, voluntary arbitration, and compulsory adjudication. However, in most cases employer/employee relations are determined by direct collective bargaining.
Reliable date on employer/employee relations is available only for the "organized sector" of India's economy. The organized sector embraces incorporated enterprises and the other industrial and commercial operations on which the government can collect statistics. It does not include small lousiness establishments and agricultural holdings. Most Acts passed by the government for the welfare of workers relates to the workers in this sector. A number of social security schemes are in operation for them as well. These provisions include factory acts, wages acts and other schemes, such as employees' state insurance, employees' Provident funds, death relief, and family pension schemes for workers and their families.
Some acts and rules have also been frames for the non registered sector. The Minimum Wages Act is also applicable for many categories of workers in this sector.
Unions
The trade Unions Act 1926 provides for the registration of trade unions. Current membership of registered trade unions is estimated at over none million (source- Ministry of Labour).
Unions are found throughout the organized sector. They enter into binding contracts and settlements with the employers on behalf of the workers Wages in the organized sector are left to the process of collective bargaining, conciliation, arbitration, and adjudication.
Membership in a trade union is not obligatory, but in practice most workers and office staff are enrolled as members of a union. Most trade unions are connected with a political party, and all leading political parties have sponsored trade union wings. In recent years, it has become a common feature in large industrial establishments to have more than one trade union, not necessarily distinguished on a craft or trade basis, and this have given rise to interunion rivalry.
Militancy in trade union activities is becoming less frequent.
The existence and the active role of the various types of conciliatory machinery set up by the government have helped to contain confrontation between the employers and the unions and to bring about conciliation and settlement.
Employee training programs
Industrial establishments of both public and private sectors and commercial organizations that are conscious of the value of their human resources development provide training facilities to supervisory, skilled and semi-skilled workers-either through their own training and development departments or by sponsoring employees selectively to programs conducted by the professionally run institutes and organizations to meet specific needs. Such training is undertaken at the initiative of the concerned establishments, and the expenses are borne by them.