Employment Discrimination Law
Articles 232 and 243 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has specified and clarified The Right to Work as an imperative Human Right. Everybody has the privilege to work and can opt for working in a secure environment.
NON-DISCRIMINATION: The Constitution of India guarantees equality and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, birthplace, residence or any of them.
The Constitution guarantees equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State. No citizen can, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
The Equal Remuneration Act also forbids discrimination in hiring, pay and conditions of employment between male and female workers engaged in the same or similar work, except where dissimilar treatment is mandated or permitted under the law.
The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 30, 2019 and Rajya Sabha on 02 August 2019.
The Wage Code regulates wage and bonus payments in all employment. The Code combines the provision of the following four laws: (i) the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, (ii) the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, (iii) the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and (iv) the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
Equal choice of profession
In accordance with the Constitution, every citizen has the right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business subject to reasonable restrictions imposed under the law.
Women in India cannot work in the same industries as men. According to the Factories Act 1948, women can’t be employed in any part of a factory for pressing cotton in which a cotton-opener is at work. The Act further states that the daily work hour exemption cannot be granted for women workers and night work is also prohibited to them. Moreover the Act prohibits employment of women in “dangerous” occupations
Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 obliges businesses to pay equal to compensation to laborers for same work or similar work with no discrimination on the premise of gender. The Act requires each business not to pay to any labourer, the compensation at rates less great than those at which fee is paid by him to the labourers of the opposite sex for playing out a similar work or work. Law additionally commits managers not to decrease the rate of compensation of any laborer with the motive of conforming to the arrangement of equivalent pay for same work or similar work.
This law aims to prevent gender discrimination of wages, hiring, promotion, or training and can be circumvented through wage reclassification of skilled and unskilled workers. Often, regardless of the type or skill-level of a job, women are placed in the unskilled, lower-paid wage category, while men are placed in the skilled, higher-wage category. The Act Includes Equal pay to men and women workers for same or similar work.