Special Economic Zones: Operational Adjustment of Labour Law Amita Punj 1 Abstract Labour law regimes worldwide have undergone a metamorphosis on account of their inextricable relation with the labour market which in turn is influenced by the prevailing economic thought. The mid-eighties witnessed a marked shift in the domi- nant economic thought from demand side to supply side economic theory. Export processing zones or special economic zones established with a view to promote export oriented economic growth constitute an overzealous expression of this shift. In tune with this trend, labour law, as operationalised in special economic zones in India manifests adjustment of workers’ rights to the need of economic growth euphemistically called ‘development’. The intention to exclude application of labour law in these zones reflected in the Bill introduced by the then minister of Commerce and Industry is being realised despite the outright rejection of such exclusion by the legislature and its substitution by a norm upholding the applicability. The following piece presents the saga of normative ways and mechanisms adopted for such a struc- tural adjustment of labour law within special economic zones. Keywords Special Economic Zones, Labour Law, Export oriented growth, Neo-liberalism, Parliamentary debate on SEZ Act Introduction The Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, a legislative embodiment of the neo- liberal approach to development, epitomises the clandestine adjustment of the labour rights regime to the needs of development. For this purpose varied meth- ods were adopted at different stages viz., labour rights regime reflected in the government Bill proposed in the Parliament, the nature of provisions relating to labour laws finally approved by the Parliament, the rules made under the Act by the executive and finally the methods adopted by state governments in general in Article Journal of National Law University Delhi 5(1) 78–98 2018 National Law University Delhi SAGE Publications sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/2277401718787955 http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jnl * Associate Professor of Law, National Law University Delhi, India. Corresponding author: Amita Punj, 403, Faculty Housing, National Law University, Delhi, Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi, India. E-mail: amita.punj@nludelhi.ac.in