New Delhi: The roll out of the four labour codes, passed by the Parliament almost five years ago to reform labour market and facilitate employment generation, is likely to take more time with West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Delhi being the three states yet to frame their draft rules under all the codes.
In a meeting chaired by the Union labour secretary Sumita Dawra Thursday to assess the preparedness of states and Union territories (UTs) in finalisation of the draft rules under the four labour codes, the Centre advised West Bengal, which has not framed rules under any of the four codes to fast-track the process. Tamil Nadu and Delhi, which have not framed rules under one or more codes, were also told to expedite.
The meeting was attended by the labour secretaries and commissioners of all 36 states and UTs.
The four codes that had consolidated the 29 central labour laws were passed between 2019 and 2020 to give impetus to economic reforms and ensure welfare of unorganised sector workers. These included the Code on Wages, Code on Industrial Relations, Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions and Code on Social Security.
However, the codes have not yet been operationalised mainly because of tardiness on the part of some of the states to finalise and pre-publish the draft rules. Labour is part of the concurrent list and both states and the Centre have to notify the rules under their respective jurisdiction. Without the notification of rules, the codes cannot become operational.
While a majority of the 36 states and UTs have pre-published the rules under the codes, West Bengal is the only state that has not framed the draft rules under any of the four codes. Tamil Nadu has not framed the draft rules for one of the four codes while Delhi has framed rules under just one of the codes, a labour ministry official, who did not want to be named, told ThePrint.
The official added that some of the states have left out two or three sections of the codes in their pre-published draft rules. They were told to harmonise their rules with the central rule, the official said.
“We impressed upon the states that operationalisation of the codes will promote labour welfare by way of universalisation of wages and social security, ensuring safe and healthy workplace, formalisation of employment and higher female labour force participation, among others,” the official quoted earlier said.
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What the codes aim to do
Though some of the provisions of the labour laws have run into trouble with trade unions, but by and large, once they take off, the codes are expected to usher in labour reforms and facilitate ease of doing business.
For instance, the Industrial Relations Code will make it easy for companies to hire and fire workers. Companies employing up to 300 workers will not be required to frame standing orders for its workforce. Presently, it is compulsory for firms employing up to 100 workers to frame standing orders. Standing orders are the rules of conduct for workmen employed in industrial establishments.
It will also make it difficult for labour unions to go on a strike. The code mandates that workers in factories will have to give notice of at least 14 days to employers if they want to go on strike. Presently, only workers in public utility services are required to give notice for strike.
Similarly, the Code on Social Security will universalise social security coverage to those working in the unorganised sectors, such as migrant workers, gig workers and platform workers.
For the first time, it will bring freelancers, also known as ‘gig workers’, and platform workers who access other organisations using online platforms — such as delivery personnel working with food service aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy and cab drivers with aggregators such as Ola and Uber — under the social security net.
The Narendra Modi government has been batting for labour reforms ever since it first came to power in 2014. Early in his first term, Modi had initiated the process to consolidate the 29 central labour laws into four codes. But on the ground the reforms have stalled with the central and state governments not notifying the rules.
The new labour laws will cater to the approximately 40 crore unorganised sector workers. So far, most of the policies and schemes only catered to the organised sector workers whose number ranged between 9 and 10 crore.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)