NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday notified the four Labour Codes pending since 2020, ushering in several worker-friendly measures such as universal social security and timely minimum wage, while also trying to make life easy for companies in terms of compliance and paper work.
In all, 29 older labour laws were streamlined into four codes—the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.
According to the government, these codes will bring improvements in wages, workplace safety, social security, equality, and employee rights across several sectors.
In a first, gig workers have been formally brought under the social security framework. Towards this, aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Uber will have to contribute 1-2% of their annual turnover.
Among the other key reforms are mandatory appointment letters to workers to ensure formalisation and job security, expanded rights and safety for women, including night-shift work and mandatory grievance committees, and free annual health check-ups for workers above 40.
Migrant workers in the textile sector, will get equal wages and welfare benefits. They can raise claims for up to three years to settle pending dues, and overtime must be paid at double the wage rate.
As for companies, their compliance burden has been eased with the number of returns to file, number of records to keep, and the number of licences to obtain being cut down to size. Also, the retrenchment rules have been relaxed, triggering angry reactions from trade unions.
A joint platform of 10 central trade unions called for a nationwide protest on November 26 demanding the withdrawal of the codes, terming them “anti-worker” and “pro-employer”. Some trade unions welcomed the reforms.
While the government claims the move will go a long way in ease of doing business, it will also increase the operating costs for companies due to higher minimum wages and greater accountability on safety and working conditions.
The next step is framing the rules. As labour is a concurrent subject, the Centre and states have to frame laws and rules.