The Hindu Business Line : `Better labour laws vital for temping market'

THE Indian temping (temporary staffing) market needs a thrust in the form of better regulation and legislation. Comparing the Indian temping market which is worth about $200 million (Rs 900 crore) to the global market currently worth $200 billion, Mr Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services Ltd, said that temping in India can catapult into the next stage if the government deletes current provisions of certain sections of the Contract Labour Regulation Act and the Industrial Disputes Act, which virtually ban employment of contract workers.

Mr Sabharwal was speaking at a seminar on `Temping and Outsourcing: A strategy to improve competitiveness of enterprises,' organised by the Karnataka Employers' Association and International Labour Organisation.

Mr B.C. Prabhakar, Working President, KEA, talked of the legal perspectives in the outsourcing practice and said that while in other countries, the industrial revolution preceded labour reforms; in India it has been the reverse. "Therefore, labour laws are stagnant and not keeping pace with the fast-paced business changes," he said. For instance, the Indian labour force is growing at two per cent a year, which means the economy has to create eight million new jobs to keep the unemployment frozen.

Making a case for temping, Mr Sabharwal said that "these numbers are practically impossible to achieve and we can't have massive job creation unless we raise the employment elasticity of GDP." He recommended the creation of a Ministry of Employment, which could give serious thought to temporary staffing.

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