Union Labor Minister Bhupender Yadav has stated that retrenchments will be regarded as illegal if they are not carried out in accordance with the Industrial Disputes Act amid a wave of layoffs across the nation.
“Further, any retrenchment and layoff are deemed to be illegal which is not carried out as per the provisions of (the) ID Act. (The) ID Act also provides for (the) right of workmen laid off and retrenched for compensation and it also contains provision for re-employment of retrenched workmen,” said Yadav.
Yadav went on to explain that organisations that employ more than 100 people are required by law to obtain approval from authorities prior to mass layoffs or "effecting closure."
He also specified that state governments were the jurisdictional authorities with regard to mass layoffs in domains such as edtech, social media, information technology (IT) and related sectors. Yadav also said that the central government maintained no data on mass firing with regard to these sectors.
According to a report, startups have fired nearly 18,000 employees since the beginning of the year.