By passing four broad codes in the parliament the Ministry of labour and employment has confirmed the new job rules. The reforms will be applied soon. The four codes created for wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health, and working conditions (OSH) have got the president’s assent and notified to those for implementation. But the rules are yet to be notified.
The wages code got its clearance in 2019 in the parliament and the rest three codes were passed in 2020. The government says that these laws are formed to rationalise the 44 central labour laws. Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra in a statement said, “We have finalised the rules under the four codes which are required to implement the four labour codes. We are ready to notify these rules. The states are doing their work to firm up rules under the four codes.”
While the new rules are aimed at streamlining and simplifying the existing labour laws, they are getting mixed responses from the experts. A certain section believes this a good step towards employment generation and trade unions and others are labelling the codes as anti-labour saying they are more favourable for the employers. The state governments will also frame some rules in the codes as labour is a concurrent subject.