Name – Maitry Jogi
Course – Five Year BLS LLB
Semester -10th Semester
College –Kes shri Jayantilal H Patel Law College
A comparative study on new labour codes.
What
are labour codes?
A labour code, is a
codification of labour laws in legislative form. The Indian government earlier
had at the federal and state level had ensured high degree of protection for
the workers. But this differed due to the form of government as labour being
the subject in the concurrent list of the Indian constitution.
The Indian labour laws were
been framed to depict the relations between the employer and the employee,
which were been framed to protect the interests of the workers. The major acts
that talked about the rights of the workers for their protection some of them are:
· The workers
compensation act 1923
Under this act it is
stated regarding the compensation to the workers who had accidents causing
injuries during their employment.
· The trade union act
1926
Under this act the
unions had the power to compel higher management to agree to the reasonable
demands.
· Payment of wages act
1936
Under this at it was
ensured that workers must get their wages timely without any unauthorized
deductions.
· Indian industrial dispute
act 1947
Under this act it is
stated regarding the fair dismissal of permanent employees.
· Minimum wages act
1948
This act talked about
the minimum wages of the workers according to the kind of work and location of
different economic sectors decided by the state and central government.
· Factories act 1948
Under this act it
stated regarding the occupational safety and health of the workers in the
factories and docks.
· Maternity benefits
act 1961
The act spoke about
the maternity leave for the pregnant women employees and their full payment of
wages even during their absence.
· Sexual harassment of
women at workplace act 2013
Under this act it was
prohibited any kind of sexual harassment of the female workers at the
workplace.
What are the new labour codes all about?
The ministry of labour and employment introduced
four bills in 2019 to amend 29 central laws relating to the labour laws which
simplify and modernise the labour codes. Over 90% of India’s 50 crore labours
are in the unorganised sector, through the new codes the government is willing
to ensure that all the workers are benefited through the new labour codes,
which talk about four new labour laws likely to be implemented on wages, social
security, industrial relations and occupational safety, health and working
conditions which have been codified as:
·
The code on wages 2019
·
The industrial relations code
2020
·
The occupational safety, health
and working condition code 2020
·
The code on social security 2020
Under these new codes a number of aspects may change
relating to employment, work culture, salary of employees, working hours, and
the number of weekdays. But if these codes are been implemented, they may cause
employees in India for a four-day workweek as opposed to a five-day workweek, if
it happens so the employees might have to work 12 hours on the four-day
workweek as it is been cleared by the labour ministry stating a 48 hour of
weekly work.
The code on wages 2019
The code of wages
2019 has been made which repeals 4 major labour law codes relating to wages,
bonus and matters incidental to the same. The codes that shall be repealed are
the payment of wages act 1936, the minimum wages act 1948, the payment of bonus
act 1965 and the equal remuneration act 1976. This code is in existence and is
enacted.
The code provides for
a common definition for the term wages which will allow the employers to follow
a common practice for calculating of the wages avoiding different
interpretations of the term. Under this code the conditions state that the
employer shall not pay wages less than 50% of the total remuneration of cost to
company which shall include the basic pay, dearness allowance, retaining
allowance and specifically excludes house rent allowances, conveyance,
statutory bonus, overtime allowance and commissions.
The workers get
benefited with a guarantee of minimum wages to all the 50 crore workers of
organized and unorganized sectors, the government shall not exceed a period of
5 years for revision of the minimum wages, guarantee for the timely payment of
their wages, equal remuneration to male and female, removing of regional
disparity in minimum wages with introduction of the floor wage provision, the
determination of minimum wage on the ground of skill level and geographical
area and under the payment of wages act the wage ceiling has been increased
from Rs 18000 to Rs 24000.
The industrial relations code 2020
This code states about
the provisions for simplifying compliance burden and promoting the ease of
doing business in an establishment. This code amalgamates and simplifies
various labour laws which are:
· The industrial
dispute act 1947
· The trade union act
1926
· The industrial employment
(standing order) act 1946
The old provisions
did not mention regarding the definitions of the term fixed term employment and
the term employee, the workmen was not required to bring grievances to the grievance redressal committee and can
directly approach the conciliation officer under section 9C of the industrial
dispute act 1947, there being a lack of time limitation provided for the
completion of a disciplinary proceeding against a particular worker, the
standing orders only been applicable to 100 or more workmen under the
industrial establishment standing order act 1946.
The new labour code
states that if a workmen loses his job he will receive the benefit under the
Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalian Yojna under which if a worker loses his job he
receives a financial aid from the government and this unemployment allowance is
admissible to the workers covered under the Employ State Insurance (ESI)
scheme, during the time of retrenchment worker would be provides with
re-shilling wages for 15 days which would be credited directly into the bank
account of the worker for him to learn new skills, faster justice for the
workers through the tribunals, the dispute among the workers to be resolved
within a year in the tribunal, the industrial tribunal consisting of 2 members
for faster disposal of cases, the industrial establishments consisting of a
trade union having 51% of votes shall be recognized as the sole negotiating
union for the agreements with the employers and if in an establishment no trade
union gets 51% votes a negotiating council of trade union shall be constituted
for making agreements with the employer, it has been made mandatory to approach
the grievance redressal committee if any, in an inquiry along with
investigation needs to be completed within 90 days starting from the date of
workers suspension, the threshold of standing orders has now been increased for
its applicability to 300 workers.
The occupational safety, health, and working
conditions code 2020
This code is been
made for providing better and safe environment along with occupational health
and safety of the workers at the workplace. There are 13 labour laws that have
been subsumed in this code. This code states for the security interests of workers
engaged in factories, mines, plantations, motor transport sectors, bidi and
cigar workers, contract and migrant workers has been ensured.
The old labour codes
had the lack of any particular provisions for workers who were employed in
sectors like transport, journalism, sales etc, lack of provisions regarding
leave encashment policy, lack of provisions regarding night shift employment of
women also lack of the provisions covering the overtime of employees and their
consent.
The new labour codes
have the provisions which states for the inter-state migrant shall be given the
benefit with respect to portability and ration which includes cess, then the
employees shall be provided with heath checkups once a year free of cost by the
employer, the employer shall have to mandatorily issue an appointment letter to
the employee for promoting formalization at workplace, national occupational safety and health advisory board shall be entrenched by the central
government as per the provisions of the code and the board shall advise the central government
on problems associated with implementation of
health and safety standards regulated beneath the Code also the State occupational Safety and Health advisory board shall even be entrenched on
a state-level, there are special provisions been stated with leave requirements
and working hours for workers employed under transport, journalism, sales etc,
provisions relating to leave encashment have been laid out availing at the end
of the calendar year along with leave encashment at discharge or dismissal or
death during the course of employment stated in section 32 of the code, it also
provides for the carry forward of the leave of the worker if he doesn’t avail
it in the whole calendar year but the total number of leave days that may be
carried forward cannot exceed 30 days and leave with wages that have been
refused can be carried forward without limit, provisions hav been included
regarding employment of women after 7pm-6am with conditions related with their
consent and safety, the provisions has been introduced for the employees
consent for overtime along with twice wages for that overtime by employer.
The social security code 2020
This code has been framed
to ensure security for all workers. This code amalgamates 9 labour laws in
order to secure the rights of workers for insurance, pension, gratuity,
maternity benefit, etc. This code creates a comprehensive legal framework for
the workers so that they can receive complete social security. Under this a
system would be institutionalised in a step wise manner for the contribution
received from employer and worker also in which the government can fund the
contribution of workers from disadvantaged section.
In the old labour code
there were no definitions stated for fixed term employment, home based worker,
self-employed worker, platform worker. In the previous regime of labour laws
the cancellation of an industry establishment and its registration was required
all across all previous employment laws, no provisions had been provided
regarding social security organisations and their formation in the previous
labour laws, there was lack of limitation period for deciding upon the money
dues from a particular employer under the employees provident fund and
miscellaneous provisions act 1952.
In the new labour code the
workers are benefited through a small contribution for free treatment under the
hospitals and dispensaries of Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) whose
doors will be open for the workers of all sectors along with the unorganised
sector, there will be an expansion of ESIC hospitals and dispensaries up to
district level and the facility to be increased from 566 districts to all the
740 districts of the country, workers engaged in hazardous work, platform and
gig worker engaged in new technology, plantation workers shall be benefited
with ESIC.
Expansion of social
security has been made by the Benefit of pension Scheme (EPFO) to all workers
of organised, unorganised and self-employed sector along with creation of
social security fund for giving comprehensive social security to the
unorganised sector, there has been a removal of requirement of minimum service
for payment of gratuity in case of fixed term employees and they should receive
the same social security benefit as the permanent employees, there has been a
creation of national database through registration on portal of the workers of
unorganised sector, employer who is employing more than 20 workers has to
compulsorily report vacancies online, there should be a Universal Account
Number (UAN) which should be Adhaar based to ensure seamless portability for
ESIC, EPFO and Unorganised sector workers.
Conclusion
The new labour code
introduces various provisions and special provisions for adapting better
regulations for industries and establishments, therefore allowing industries
flexibility. The codification and amalgamation of such laws has also let them to
growth of the ambit and applicability of the laws, ease of compliance, removal
of multiplicity of definitions and overlapping of authorities. The new codes
shall empower the relationship between the employer, employee and the
government having a positive long-term impact on the industry and further
contribute towards the idea of ease of doing business.
However, the impact of new labour codes is immense,
it require huge management change for employers. Employers will need to start
preparing for these codes by firstly analyzing the impact of the codes and then
creating internal policies, processes and governance structures which are lined
up with the various requirements under the labour codes. All functional groups
in an organization will need to come together for successful implementation of
a framework that is future-ready.
