Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said there was a need for a "critical" study of the existing regulatory framework to find out whether they were coming in the way of development and growth of employment and industry without really contributing to labour welfare.

"Though our government remains committed to protecting the interests of our workers, we must periodically take a critical look whether our regulatory framework has some parts which unnecessarily hamper the growth of employment, enterprise and industry without really contributing significantly to labour welfare," he said.

Singh said the government was for the well-being of all workers and was looking at making such provisions which would see part-time work have the same characteristics as in full-time employment.

"If this requires legislative changes, we should be prepared to do so and begin working on a blueprint for making this a reality," he said at the 44th Indian Labour Conference.

The prime minister felt state governments in recent years were showing far more flexibility in their approach to labour restructuring and rationalisation than in the past when view expressed was that Indian labour policies unduly protect interests of the employed labour and act against the expansion of employment.

Noting the government was "fully" committed to strengthening labour laws and ensuring their compliance, he said they were in the process of amending the Factories Act, 1948.

Stating that his ambition was to achieve a nine per cent growth rate, Singh said this can only be achieved when the employers' and workers' representatives join hands together