Labour Code Bills Passed

In News

The Lok Sabha cleared three labour code bills, a major reform aimed at improving labour laws in the country at the same time facilitating industries to be flexible in hiring and firing workers.

In-Detail

• The Lok Sabha has cleared three labour code bills with new versions.
• The bills include Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020, Occupational Safety and Health and Working Code Bill, 2020 and Code on Social Security Bill 2020.
• The government proposes to increase the social security by including the gig workers and inter-state migrant workers.
• It proposed measures that will provide greater flexibility for employers to hire and fire workers without government permission.

Key Proposals

• The government has proposed more conditions in the Industrial Relations Code Bill 2020, by restricting the right of workers to strike, an increase in threshold relating to layoffs and retrenchment in industrial establishments having 300 workers from 100 workers or more, to provide more flexibility to employers for hiring and firing workers without government permissions.
• The Industrial Relations Code Bill has raised the threshold for the requirement of a standard order which enables the companies to introduce arbitrary service conditions for workers.
• States like Rajasthan have already increased the threshold.
• According to the Labour Ministry, this rule has resulted in an increase in employment and a decrease in retrenchment.

Concerns over New Labour Laws

• Experts say that increase in the threshold may water down the labour rights for workers in the small establishments having less than 300 workers.
• The new Code also introduces new conditions for carrying out a legal strike.
• Before going for a legal strike, the period for arbitration proceedings has been included in the conditions for workers.
• The IR code proposes that no worker should go on strike without a 60-day notice and during the pendency of proceedings before a Tribunal or a National Industrial Tribunal and sixty days after the conclusions of the proceedings.
• The Standing Committee on Labour had recommended against the expansion of the strike beyond the public utility services like water, electricity, natural gas, telephone and other essential services.
• Now, a person employed in the public utility services cannot go for a strike unless he gives a notice for a strike within six weeks before going on the strike or 14 of giving such notice.
• But the proposed IR code is applicable for all the industrial establishments.

Proposals for Workers

• The IR Code Bill has proposed a worker re-skilling fund.
• The contributors for the fund are detailed from the employer of an industry amounting to 15 days wages last drawn by the worker immediately before the retrenchment along with the contribution of other sources.
• The two other Codes have also proposed the changes for expanding social security and inclusion of inter-state migrant workers.
• The Social Security Code proposes the National Social Security Board.
• The National Social Security Board guides the central government for formulating suitable schemes. These schemes are for different sections of unorganized workers, gig workers and platform workers.
• For social security, the aggregators employing gig workers will have to contribute 1-2% of their annual turnover.
• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code defined the inter-state migrant workers as the worker who has come on his own from one state and working in another state earning up to Rs 18000 per month.
• The Code has dropped the provision for temporary accommodations for workers near the work sites.
• The Code proposed a journey allowance where the employer should pay a lump sum amount for to and fro journey of the worker.