Karnataka Cabinet clears draft bill reserving 50-75% private sector jobs for locals

In its latest populist move, the Congress government of Karnataka has cleared a bill that reserves up to 75 per cent of private sector jobs for locals.

The Karnataka government on Tuesday cleared a bill that seeks to reserve 50 per cent of management jobs and 75 per cent of non-management jobs for locals, according to Moneycontrol.

The bill is formally called the State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024.

The bill is the latest example of linguistic populism in Karnataka. In the past few months, the issue of mandatory signboards and hoarding in Kannada has frequently made headlines. Additionally, the state government has been implementing a slew of schemes in line with election promises that have drained the exchequer and have led to increase in state taxes and cesses.

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What’s there in Karnataka’s private jobs reservation bill?

To be sure, the proposed law in Karnataka does not reserve private jobs for Karnataka residents but for Kannadigas along linguistic lines.

The bill reserves private jobs only for those locals who speak Kannada, according to Moneycontrol.

The report further said that the bill mandates that locals without a secondary school certificate in Kannada must pass a specified Kannada proficiency test to be eligible for reservation.

The bill defines a local candidate eligible for the reserved jobs as someone who has been born in Karnataka, has been domiciled in the state for 15 years, is fluent in Kannada, and passes a required test by the nodal agency, according to the report.

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Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad told Moneycontrol, “The bill mandates giving priority to Kannadigas, especially since many private firms avail subsidies and other benefits from the government to set up establishments. Therefore, we aim to create more jobs for local Kannadigas.”

Lal said the bill will be tabled during the ongoing assembly session.

The management category includes supervisory, managerial, technical, operational, administrative, and higher roles, excluding directors, and the ’non-management category’ jobs include clerical, unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, IT/ITES employees, and contractual workers, as per the report.

In cases where qualified local candidates are unavailable, employers will be required to collaborate with government agencies to train and engage locals within three years under the proposed law, according to the report.

Employers will be handed fines ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for violations and repeated violations would attract additional penalties of Rs 100 per day, according to the bill.

What’s the idea behind private jobs’ reservation?

The idea behind the proposed reservation of private sector jobs in Karnataka is to purportedly compensated for local employment lost due to acquisition of agricultural land to build private business establishments.

As for the need for private jobs’ reservations, NDTV Profit says that the draft bill notes that most of the rising demand for land for industries is met by acquiring agricultural land and the owners are displaced and deprived of their occupation. The report says the bill seeks to cater to them and also seeks to address the demand of locals who were promised employment and livelihood from the coming up of these establishments.

“Though there were promises by the industrial management to meet these demands at the initial phases of setting up their industries, more often than not, the objectives are not met. This is causing dissatisfaction in the local community and leading to industrial unrest. Therefore, there is a need to address the problem through a legal framework,” says the bill, as per NDTV Profit.