Paper short abstract:

Analyzing India's labour reforms, the article reveals the heightened vulnerability of migrant workers amidst shifting state-capital-labour dynamics post-COVID-19, emphasizing the need to reconsider policies impacting inter-state migrants.

Paper long abstract:

This article undertakes a socio-legal analysis of India’s changing labour laws and situates migrant workers within the broader context of the changing relations between state, capital, and labour amid the reforms that were introduced in 2019–2020. It illustrates the precarity of migrant workers and the possibility of their legal exclusion from the revised labour codes, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic-led lockdowns. The new codes reduced the number of establishments under regulation and diluted provisions that can hold contractors and employers accountable, which increases the scope for exploitation of workers and has serious implications for the rights of migrants. The labour law reforms, we argue, appear to have favoured capital in its relations with workers and have increased the degree of informality in a wide range of industries. Inter-state migrant workers may find themselves excluded from protective provisions that hold employers accountable for their treatment and this may make them more vulnerable in the informal sector. The article concludes that this push by the state to boost the ‘ease of doing business’ via precarious forms of employment and whittling away the protections of inter-state migrant workers may be far more detrimental than expected.