DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
2018-19

Project On:
“Labour Rights in Digital Era: From Collective Need to Individual
Concern”

For continuous evaluation in the subject of-

Labour Law
Semester IX
[Academic Year 2018- 2019]

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Prasenjit Kundu Shobhit S Awasthi
Assistant Professor (Law) Sec-B, Roll No-130

Dr. RMLNLU Lucknow BA.LLB (Hons)

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My Project in the seminar subject “Labour Law” on the topic “Labour Rights in Digital Era:
From Collective Need to Individual Concern” has been given shape and success by the efforts of
lot of people who have contributed in its completion.

I would like to express my humble thanks to Dr. Prasenjit Kundu my subject teacher, under
whose supervision the project could have been completed and without whose teachings and
insights on the subject, the project could not have been fructified.

I also extend my heartiest thanks to my seniors for their insights into the concerned project and
helping me with everything I asked them. The role of the Library Department is noteworthy. All
the staff members helped me generously in getting the materials and information I needed to
complete the project.

Thank you!

SHOBHIT SAINESH AWASTHI

Enrollment No. 140101130

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................................................. 2

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 4

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM ....................................................................................................... 5

RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 5

OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................................... 5

LABOUR RIGHTS AND DIGITAL ERA ..................................................................................... 5

REACH AND EFFECTS OF DIGITALIZATION ON LABOUR MARKET .............................. 8

ROLE AND RELEVANCE OF TRADE UNIONS IN DIGITAL ERA ........................................ 9

APPROACH OF COURTS .......................................................................................................... 11

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ....................................................................................... 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 13

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 INTRODUCTION
The digital era which has been started after cold war in 1991 has brought many changes in the
society as a whole. Now, in the 21st century after this technological revolution, there is an urgent
need to revamp different sectors of the society and labour sector is one of them. Digitalisation is
one of the megatrends affecting societies and labour markets, alongside demographic change and
globalisation. The fourth industrial revolution will redesign production processes and alter the
relationships between work and leisure, capital and labour, the rich and the poor, the skilled and
the unskilled. The degree of disruption induced by the technological transformation ahead largely
depends on the policy framework. Digitalisation can lead to anything between soaring inequalities
and widespread improvements of living and working conditions.1

In the digital era, a broad range of labour-related trends and developments require political
attention. So, in furtherance of labour rights in digital era this project work is firstly talking about
the traditional labour rights and their changing nature in digital era.

After that it will analyse the status of labour rights in pre-globalization and post-globalization
period. Secondly, project will focus on reach and effects of digitalization in organized sector and
unorganized sector so far.

As we face the dawn of "Industry 4.0," a term experts use to refer to the era of automation, the
purpose of labor unions is being questioned. Can organized workers be as effective at a time when
work is being handed over to machines? What rights do workers have when machine efficiency
outworks humans? Do worker’s rights even matter when there’s no more work left for people to
do? In the next part it will try to evaluate the role and relevance of trade unions vis-a-via
effectiveness of traditional labour laws and at what extent reforms are required in it.

At last before the conclusion project will try to get some glimpse of court’s liberal approach in
labour issues after globalization and how far it is helpful in digital era where individual concern is
dominant over collective need. In the conclusion, project will emphasize on the need of a balanced
policy in which preference should be given to betterment of labours. And as a welfare state there
should have a proper system to address grievance of labourers.

1
Volker Ziemann, Inclusive labour Markets in the digital era: the case of Austria, ECO/WKP (2017)63

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 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The basic problem now which is being faced by the labour sector after digitalization is lack of a
legal framework to address issues. Therefore, instead of connecting dots there is need to make and
restore the whole things.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. To know traditional labour rights and how their nature is changing in digital era?
2. To know the status of labour rights in pre and post globalization?
3. To know the reach and effects of digitalization in labour sector?
4. Analyse the role and relevance of trade unions in digital era?
5. To underline the approach of courts after globalization?

OBJECTIVE
The broad objective of the study is to know the situation of labour rights in digital era specifically
in India. And, secondly analyse the changing nature of labour sector after the globalization and
how it is shifting from collective need to individual concerns.

LABOUR RIGHTS AND DIGITAL ERA

This section will talk about the labour rights in general and what are the fundamental principles
behind it. After that it will focus on digital era and how it is making situations tough to manage.
As far as labour rights are concern it is a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to
do with labour relations between workers and their employers. 2

Labor rights are a relatively new addition to the modern corpus of human rights. The modern
concept of labor rights dates to the 19th century after the creation of labor unions following the
industrialization processes. Karl Marx stands out as one of the earliest and most prominent
advocates for worker’s rights. His philosophy and economic theory focused on labor issues and
advocates his economic system of socialism, a society which would be ruled by the workers. Many
of the social movements for the rights of the workers were associated with groups influenced by
Marx such as the socialists and communists. More moderate democratic socialists and social
democrats supported worker's interests as well. More recent worker’s rights advocacy has focused

2
S. C. Srivastava, Labour Law & Labour Relations: Cases and Materials, 3rd Edition, Indian Law Institute, New
Delhi.

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on the particular role, exploitation, and needs of women workers, and of increasingly mobile global
flows of casual, service, or guest workers.

The labour movement has been instrumental in the enacting of laws protecting labour rights in the
19th and 20th centuries. Labour rights have been integral to the social and economic development
since the Industrial Revolution. The workers began demanding better conditions and the right to
organize so as to improve their standard of living. Most people of the world depend upon the day’s
work for a day’s wages. If for any reason, they are unable to work, they find themselves in financial
difficulties. So, in order to tackle it they are entitled to get remedies through their rights.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) was formed in 1919 as part of the League of Nations
to protect worker's rights. The ILO later became incorporated into the United Nations. The UN
itself backed worker’s rights by incorporating several into two articles of the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights, which is the basis of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights. These read as:

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself
and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by
other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.3

Article 24

1. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours
and periodic holidays with pay4.

3
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. United Nations
4
Ibid

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The ILO and several other groups have sought international labor standards to create legal rights
for workers across the world. Recent movements have also been made to encourage countries to
promote labor rights at the international level through fair trade.

Apart from these labour rights there is need to discuss core labour standards Identified by the ILO
in the ‘Declaration of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work’,5core labour standards are
“widely recognized to be of particular importance”.6They are universally applicable, regardless of
whether the relevant conventions have been ratified, the level of development of a country or
cultural values.7These standards are composed of qualitative, not quantitative standards and don’t
establish a particular level of working conditions, wages or health and safety standards. They are
not intended to undermine the comparative advantage that developing countries may hold. Core
labor standards are important human rights and are recognized in widely ratified international
human rights instruments including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC), the most
widely ratified human rights treaty with 193 parties, and the ICCPR with 160 parties.8

Now, the main trending issue is how to insure these rights in digital era. For a time being it seems
quite tough by considering the nature of labour market which is changing from collective need to
individual concern. So, here it become important to sort out this issue by knowing the nuances
from the grass root level. In that order let’s address the components of digital era and try to apply
the fundamental principles of labour law.

The Digital Era is characterized by technology which increases the speed and breadth of
knowledge turnover within the economy and society. Further it can be seen as the development of
an evolutionary system in which knowledge turnover is not only very high, but also increasingly
out of the control of humans, making it a time in which our lives become more difficult to manage.9
Therefor apart from making our lives comfortable side by side this digitalization process is making
tough situations for us. It means in every sphere of human eco-system. It is not a matter of panic
but a matter to manage.

5
Asian Development Bank 2006, ‘Core Labour Standards Handbook’, Manila
6
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 1996 ‘Trade, Employment and Labour Standards: A Study
of Core Workers’ Rights and International Trade
7
United Nations Global Compact, Labour,
8
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ratification and Reservations: International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
9
Georgios Doukidis, Nikolaos Mylonopoulos, Social and Economic Transformation in the Digital Era

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 REACH AND EFFECTS OF DIGITALIZATION ON LABOUR MARKET
Will employees become mere executors of machines? How do we make an ‘inclusive’ robotisation
that will benefit all those affected? Will digital platforms give rise to a parallel, insecure labour
market? What role do employers and unions play in this emerging new world? There is a serious
lack of relevant data and many unanswered questions. Dramatically simplify the concept of the
‘digitalization of the economy’ into two parts is a good place to start. On the one hand, there is
artificial intelligence (AI) and robotisation in all its forms. This encompasses all the
computerisation and automation phenomena that enable robots to carry out non-routine manual
and cognitive tasks. Robots may be either tangible (like smart factories, driverless cars, 3D
printers) or virtual (such as software, algorithms).10

On the other, there is the platform economy as a new business model. It has been made possible
because of ubiquitous connectivity, data and mobile devices that allow people to network via
digital platforms (such as Facebook and LinkedIn), to have access to new services (like Uber and
Airbnb), e-commerce (Amazon, leboncoin.fr, etc.), and in particular to develop new business
models based on online outsourcing (including Upwork and Amazon Mechanical Turk). This
platform economy has brought a new player into the labor markets: the ‘crowd’ of disseminated
workers all over the globe, available 24/7 and often ready to work at very low rates.

So how are these two components changing labour market and how can we address them?

The European trade union movement has some tools and institutions to cope with these challenges,
which can be addressed in dialogue with management and labour groups across different
industries, collective bargaining and works councils. The main aim is to anticipate changes and, in
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the worst scenarios, to foster socially responsible restructuring. However, fresh attention must
be given to developments in the organisation of work enabled by new technologies: how far can
robotisation go, how should it be conceived in its interactions with workers, and what new
management methods will it call for? Will employees become mere executors of the machines
(including AI), or will they be involved in the automation processes? How to proceed to an
‘inclusive’ robotisation that will benefit all those affected?

10
Georgios Doukidis, Nikolaos Mylonopoulos, Social and Economic Transformation in the Digital Era
11
Christophe Degryse, Worker’s Right in Digital Era

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As the new technologies offer a whole range of monitoring tools, how do we ensure that
surveillance of employees’ work remains proportionate and respects their privacy? Trade unions
and employers must consider all these topics as important subjects for discussion and negotiation.

ROLE AND RELEVANCE OF TRADE UNIONS IN DIGITAL ERA

Labor unions have been protecting the rights of workers as far back as the 18th century. It’s
because of collective bargaining and worker protests that some work forces today enjoy the right
to argue for wage increases, access affordable healthcare, and improved working conditions within
the workplace among many other achievements. But now prima facie it seems that the role of trade
unions in digital era is shrinking and for some extent it is true. The problem is, this portion is not
yet being uplifted from traditional framework to the new one which is the need of the digital hour.
So, in this section will analyse this situation from different point of views.

 Role of Trade Unions

Trade union involvement in digitalisation processes reflects the long tradition of accompanying
working people in past periods of rapid change so as to ensure the alignment of technological
change and social progress. Trade union activities, supported by new digital tools, include:
Monitoring the compliance with labour standards, by making full use of open data access, and
informing workers about their rights and benefits. Ensuring that collective agreements and worker
representation mechanisms account for the use of new technologies. Organising workers in new
fast-growing businesses and sectors. Building capacity to organise self-employed workers and
those in non-standard employment in the digital economy. Creating platforms for information and
best-practice sharing. Participating in advisory councils on innovation and industrial policies and
co-drafting new ICT, digitalisation and broader policy frameworks. Participating in skills
ecosystems and the delivery of on-the-job training and VET systems, and co-design national
competency strategies and promote training take-up. Using digital tools in campaigns, build
exchange platforms, and e-training offers for members and non-members.12

 Relevance of Trade Unions

labor unions and industry have had a very fraught relationship with each other, especially in times
of large-scale industrial transformation. As we face the dawn of "Industry 4.0," a term experts use

12
OECD Horizontal Project, Seizing the Benefits of Digitalization for Growth and Well Being

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to refer to the era of automation, the purpose of labor unions is being questioned. Can organized
workers be as effective at a time when work is being handed over to machines? What rights do
workers have when machine efficiency outworks humans? Do worker’s rights even matter when
there’s no more work left for people to do?

In order to balance the situation of trade unions we need to bring reforms in this sector by
considering the challenges unions from developed countries are facing today are globalization and
international competition; demographic changes through migration and an ageing workforce;
technological changes via elements like the sharing economy and digital innovation like
automation; and the impact of climate change on jobs and the environment.13 Now the next big
issue are: How can unions continue to remain relevant in a more dynamic world of labor? How
can unions be more involved within the organizational structure of a company? How are unions
preparing for large-scale automation in most skilled labor industries?

There is no “one best way” for unions to respond to these challenges, but there is consensus that
unions will continue to remain relevant only by anticipating and adapting their organizing and
collective bargaining strategies to the continuously changing economy, labor market, demography,
work organisation, and human resource management. Successful stories on unions embedding
transnational corporations come from their ability to engage themselves in international networks
and collective action. For example, thanks to UNI Global Union coordination efforts, the North
American management of SecureCorp was convinced to abandon an anti-union strategy and sign
an international framework agreement (IFA) at the end of 2008, setting important standards which
could be referenced throughout the service and commerce sectors.

Similar cases can be reported from both US and European countries, where international
framework agreements between MNCs and trade unions have been signed since 1988 (when
Danone concluded the first IFA). Equally relevant for trade unions committed to the promotion of
solidarity is establishing alliances with community groups and civil society organisations.

As far as the second issue is concern union involvement in the organisational structure of a
company is not an easy process. On the one hand, unions can benefit from labor regulations and
socio-political institutions at the national or international level. Integrative bargaining can allow

13
John DR Craig, Michael Lynk, Globalization and the future of labour law.

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unions to have a role in the organisational structure of a company and achieve win-win agreements
delivering mutual gains for both workers and employers. However, in times of changing
workplaces and work forces, participatory labor relations require unions to be promoters of, rather
than obstacles to, innovation and change. Unions are, therefore, asked to keep up with
technological and organisational transformations, in order to be aware of issues at stakes for both
workers and managers. To this aim, unions can find it useful to establish relationships or
partnerships with universities, research centers and any technical expert, that can provide workers’
representatives with the necessary knowledge to both engage in fruitful negotiations with
employers and successfully interpret and sustain the demands of their represented.14

In third issue we can say that firstly, it must be specified that unlike digitization, automation of
production is a long-lasting union challenge, that traces back to the second half of the twentieth
century. The innovation of current transformations lies in the combination of automated devices
with increasing connectivity. There is no empirical research providing a general and homogeneous
picture on how unions throughout the world are preparing for large-scale automation.

However, many unions’ attempts to keep up with these changes can be reported from developed
countries. In Italy, for instance, the Italian Federation of Metalworkers, FIM-CISL, has recently
conducted a study on automation and its impact on production systems and the potential role for
unions.

APPROACH OF COURTS
In this section only the approach of Indian courts will be taken into consideration. It is to highlight
the turning point in labour adjudication by the courts. It can be easily noticed that in the mid 90’s
court was extra protective of labour laws but after 2000 it has adopted a narrow approach while
safeguarding the labour interest. It is the mix compelling effect of globalization and digitalization
after cold war and this effect is not only limited to India, it is widespread. Now look at the judicial
pronouncements in two parts, in one part the court is strictly applying the concept of labour welfare
and secure social justice of poor people and in other part it has got narrower and diluted.

For example; in Central Inland Water Transport vs. Brojo Nath Ganguly15 the purpose of the
supreme court was to secure social justice and democratic rights of the workers. And in Kapila

14
Ilaria Armaroli, Will Labor Unions Survive in The Era of Automation?
15
1986 AIR 1571

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Hingorani vs State Of Bihar 16 this case was about the working conditions, that remuneration and
salary was not given to the employees for many years. Supreme court while deciding this case
considered Part IV of the constitution and talks about the constitution obligation in it. And in that
way strengthen the socio-democratic rights.

Therefore, it can be say that all such judgements were directed towards protection of employee’s
right. And later this position got diluted but this does not mean that there is violation of labour
laws and rights. It is happening because of digitalization and globalization.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

“If you resist change, you resist life.”- Sadhguru

In order to solve or understand a complex issue like labour rights in digital era we need a multi-
dimensional approach and for that reason this quote is relevant in present scenario. Because all the
problem has been started from the resistance against digitalization. And for that the people who
are made subject to it is not responsible at all it is the system which is responsible. Now, when in
the shade of digitalization and globalization the collective need is turning into individual concern
and the method of hire and fire is rampant in the industry then there is urgent need to bring a
balanced labour policy to address the labour issues. If it has not been done in time being then it
will create a large economic gap in the society.

When we talk about the contract labour then before digitalization it was like only the 10 % of the
total labour market but after digitalization because of simplification it has now covered about 80%
of labour market. The real problem here is the method of contract labour is also applied in regular
and permanent type of jobs and as a counter product it is promoting hire and fire ritual. On one
hand corporates are becoming big giants and on the other hand workers are getting marginalized
through the profit making mentality and automation technology of digitalization. Here, the
approach for profit making is in a wrong direction, one thing must be clear that there is no end of
increasing profit. And per se there is nothing wrong in it but it must not be at the cost labour
interest. Automation does not mean that we are not able to make human centric jobs. For example;
there is large scope of human centric jobs in garments and textile sector even after automation.

16
(2003) 6 SCC 1

12
At the end there is need to increase connectivity and efficiency through simplification of
technology and progressive minds concern with labour sector must indulge in policy making so
that we can get an objective instead of problems.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Central Inland Water Transport vs. Brojo Nath Ganguly 1986 AIR 1571
 Kapila Hingorani vs State Of Bihar (2003) 6 SCC 1
 “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, United Nations
 Asian Development Bank 2006, ‘Core Labour Standards Handbook’, Manila
 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 1996 ‘Trade, Employment and
Labour Standards: A Study of Core Workers’ Rights and International Trade
 United Nations Global Compact, Labour,
 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ratification and
Reservations: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
 Georgios Doukidis, Nikolaos Mylonopoulos, Social and Economic Transformation in the
Digital Era
 Christophe Degryse, Worker’s Right in Digital Era
 OECD Horizontal Project, Seizing the Benefits of Digitalization for Growth and Well Being
 Ilaria Armaroli, Will Labor Unions Survive in The Era of Automation?

13