Labor And Wage Code: In order to improve labor laws, in the year 2019 itself, Parliament had passed three labor laws related to Industrial Relations, Social Security, Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, apart from the Wage Code. Its objective was to change 29 labor laws along with ease of doing business in the country. But even after 5 years, 4 out of 28 states and 8 union territories have not yet issued draft rules regarding the wage code. The Ministry of Labor and Employment has given this information during the question hour during the winter session of Parliament.
During Question Hour, a question was asked to the government that due to the objection of trade unions, the disputed labor code has not yet become operational. In such a situation, is the government talking to the trade unions? Also, what is the Central Government doing to complete the process of the states which have not issued draft rules regarding the Labor Code? The government was also asked whether the Central Trade Unions are opposing the Labor Codes because they feel that it is hurting the social security of the workers? And what is the government doing to enforce these laws?
In a written reply to this question, Minister of State for Labor and Employment Shobha Karandlaje said that 4 out of 28 states and 8 union territories have not issued draft rules regarding the wage code. Also, five states have not issued draft rules regarding Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. However, the Labor Minister has not disclosed the names of the states which have not made draft rules.
Shobha Karandlaje said that the Labor Ministry is continuously discussing with the Central Trade Unions and States to implement the Labor Codes. He told that because Labor is included in the Concurrent List, after notifying the codes, the Central Government has discussed the draft Central Rules with all the three parties thrice in December 2020 and January 2021. He said that talks and meetings are going on with the states which have not published the DOFT rules.
The purpose of the new labor code is to bring under its ambit more than 50 crore workers working in the organized and unorganized sector because 90 percent of the workers are outside the purview of labor laws. The objective of this law is to provide wage security, social security, health security as well as to ensure that there is no discrimination in wages on the basis of gender, to provide minimum wages and to simplify the lives of inter-state migrant workers.
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