Labour Rights and State Authority.

Chhattisgarh Terminates NHM Employees for Strike Participation - A Test Case for Labour Rights and State Authority.

The Chhattisgarh government recently terminated the services of 25 employees under the National Health Mission (NHM) for continuing an indefinite strike despite repeated notices to return to work. The move, justified by the administration under the “no work, no pay” policy, has stirred debate around labour rights, essential services, and the limits of collective bargaining in India’s public healthcare sector.

Background of the Dispute

• The NHM employees in Chhattisgarh, including contractual health workers and support staff, went on strike pressing demands for better pay scales, regularisation of services, and improved working conditions.
• The government partially accepted some of the demands but ordered employees to return to duty, citing the essential nature of healthcare services.
• When several employees continued to defy the order, 25 staff members were terminated, with the government warning of further action against non-compliance.

Legal Framework Involved

1. Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA):

Healthcare is treated as an essential service, where strikes can be restricted to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of public services.

2. No Work, No Pay Principle:

Recognised in Indian labour jurisprudence, this principle allows employers (including the state) to withhold wages if employees abstain from work without authorisation.

3. Contractual Employment Issues:

Most NHM staff are employed on a contractual basis. Unlike permanent government employees, they lack strong protections under service rules, making them more vulnerable to termination.

Government’s Justification

The Chhattisgarh government defended its decision on three primary grounds:

• Continuity of Essential Services: Public health facilities cannot afford disruptions, especially in rural areas where NHM staff form the backbone of service delivery.
• Partial Acceptance of Demands: Officials argued that, since some demands had already been met, continued strike action was unjustified.
• Administrative Discipline: Allowing prolonged defiance would set a precedent for other contractual or essential service employees.

Concerns Raised by Workers and Unions

Trade unions and employee associations have strongly criticised the government’s action:

• Suppression of Collective Bargaining: Termination, rather than dialogue, signals a punitive approach to legitimate worker grievances.
• Job Insecurity: Contractual workers already face precarious conditions; termination without due process deepens insecurity.
• Workers’ Rights vs. Public Interest: While ensuring healthcare delivery is crucial, workers argue that their long-standing demands for fair wages and regularisation cannot be ignored indefinitely.

Broader Implications for Labour and Employment Law

1. Strikes in Essential Services: The case underscores the tension between workers’ right to protest and the state’s duty to maintain uninterrupted essential services.

2. Need for a Balanced Framework: Labour law reforms must balance workers’ rights to collective action with citizens’ rights to essential services.

3. Contractualisation Debate: The heavy reliance on contractual workers in critical sectors like healthcare raises questions about job security and fair labour standards.

The Road Ahead

For Chhattisgarh and other states, this episode offers critical lessons:

• Dialogue Mechanisms: Establishing structured negotiation platforms between the government and contractual workers could help prevent such confrontations.
• Policy Reforms: Long-term reforms must address issues of regularisation, fair pay, and job security for NHM staff.
• Judicial Intervention: The terminated employees may approach labour courts or high courts, potentially setting legal precedents on the treatment of contractual staff in essential services.

Corporate Law - Posh law in India

POSH Act Support

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is a legislative act in India that seeks to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work. It was passed by the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament) on 3 September 2012. It was passed by the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament) on 26 February 2013. The Bill got the assent of the President on 23 April 2013. The Act came into force on 9 December 2013.  Kanchan Khatana & Associates has a dedicated sub-vertical POSH ADVO   that helps you become compliant with the various mandates under the prevailing law, whereby we provide policy, training, and inquiry support in case of a sexual harassment complaint.

This includes :

Acting as an External Member on the Internal Committee (IC) and supporting in driving the investigation and documentation of cases

Consultation and Advisory

Organise Mandatory Trainings:

File Annual Returns for the Company

Must have clauses in a Data Processing Agreement (DPA)

Data is the new money in this era of globalization, it is frequently remarked. As a result, there are thousands of businesses that deal with and interchange enormous amounts of data nowadays, making it crucial to have proper security measures to safeguard such data at multiple levels. One such crucial step that addresses issues like data security, data breach, and data abuse is the data processing agreement. A DPA is already required in some regions of the world, such as the European Union (EU), for data controllers and data processors. This demonstrates how crucial DPAs are. In this essay, we'll talk about the key provisions that every DPA should have.

An official contract between the data controller and the data processor is known as the data processing addendum. It may also be a contract between a controller and a controller, a controller and a joint controller, or a data processor and a subprocessor. The DPA outlines specific guidelines regarding the identity of data subjects, the types of information processed, the categories of data processed, who collects client personal data, how it is handled, where it is stored, for how long it is stored, how it can be retrieved, deleted, processed, and protected, and what steps should be taken by the parties to prevent data breaches.

The following are key clauses 

• To prevent any difficulties in interpretation, DPA should include definitions of some key terms, according to one fundamental clause. The parties should agree to include key definitions for the following terms: Applicable Laws, Client, Client Personal Data, Contractor, GDPR, Restricted Transfer, Services, Subprocessor, Controller, Data Subject, Member state, Personal Data, Personal Data Breach, Processing, Processor, Rights of Data Subjects, Supervisory Authority.

• Roles and responsibilities of a controller should be defined

• Applicable legislation, such as the GDPR, should govern processing.

• Unauthorized use, access to the client's personal data, loss of data, or unauthorized disclosure or alteration of such data on the systems managed by the processor.

• Who is included in the scope of the DPA is specified in this clause. The data subjects may include people who are EU citizens whose personal information was acquired.

• Each party will make an effort to uphold their respective responsibilities under any relevant Data Protection standards.

• This provision must include both the DPA's start date and its end date. Any day after May 25, 2018, is acceptable.

• Processing is any action taken on a person's personal data. It must be made apparent exactly what processing tasks the processor is carrying out. That is, whether the processing entails the gathering, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation, retrieval, big data analysis, consultation, disclosure, and availability of certain data, as well as the alignment, combination, matching, restriction of use or access, individual profiling, erasure or destruction, handling of media, use of data, etc.

Corporate Lawyer

Kanchan Khatana and Associates will ensure that your business is protected in its dealings with employees, customers, suppliers and other third parties. In the event of the breakdown of a relationship or dispute with a third party. We offer accessible, effective, and efficient legal advice so that the matter is dealt with swiftly and with minimal disruption to your business. Allowing you to focus on your core activities.

Corporate Lawyer

Our experts are experienced in handling a variety of legal services such as:

Our corporate law team advises a range of clients, from some of the world’s largest corporations to growing and start-up businesses on following:

* Formation and dissolution of the company.

* advices on undertaking business activities in India, including regulatory, compliance and corporate governance aspects.

* assistance in evaluating business options, corporate restructuring, negotiating and establishing commercial arrangements.

* The firm assists clients on various aspects of direct and indirect taxation including advice on transaction structuring, India entry strategies, advice on tax implications and planning, business specific and territory specific taxation and related matters. The firm advises and represents clients in tax litigation before taxation authorities, appellate tribunals, various High Courts and Supreme Court of India.