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The Burning Tale
THE GOVT NOTIFIED THE THREE LABOUR CODES AFTER SECURING THE NOD OF PRESIDENT ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2020
The three labour codes passed by Parliament recently had been long due for decades. The three bills relate to occupational safety, health and working conditions, industrial relations and social security. Along with the earlier enacted Wage Act, these four codes subsume in the 44-odd central laws enacted during the past several decades.
Impact on Employers & Employees
Consolidation and simplification of the complex laws will provide a big boost to industry & employment. It will also reduce multiplicity of definition and multiplicity of authority for businesses.
Single Licensing Mechanism will boost the industries as it would increase the ease of doing business. Currently, industries have to apply for their licence under different laws which makes it a cumbersome process.
The codes also simplify the antique laws dealing with industrial disputes. This would provide an easier resolution of disputes for both the employees and employers. It drastically reduces complexity and internal contradictions, increases flexibility & modernizes regulations on safety and working conditions of the workers.
The three codes will promote fixed-term employment, reduce the influence of trade unions and expand the social security net for informal sector workers.
Criticism
The government has been accused of passing laws which are against the interests of employees and helping the big corporates, both domestic and foreign. The codes provide liberty to industrial establishments to hire and fire their employees at will. close or open factories according to their needs. This move enables companies to introduce arbitrary service conditions for workers.
States have been given a free hand to exempt laws in violation of labour rights. This makes the entire process of codification pointless as it will definitely lead to more complications.
The codes have also been critiqued as a clear attempt to diminish the role of trade unions and benefit the corporate giants. With less representation, the workers would gradually lose the power in the relationship of an employer and employee. The corporates demand union free workplaces so that they can freely exploit workers without organised resistance, increase their profits and amass their wealth.
Guilty as Charged?
The new codes have been accused of being biased towards employers in order to improve the “ease of doing business” but they will also help in increasing the pace of generating good quality jobs to cater to the growing workforce, their rising aspirations and to absorb out-migration of labour from agriculture.
It is a double-edged sword and its impact will depend on its implementation. Only time can tell what would become of these laws. Without proper implementation, the reforms have no meaning. Only if the codes are implemented in letter and in spirit, then the results will be favourable for all and will help India become a land of opportunities.
Thank you for pausing from your busy day and gracing us with your precious time. We will get back to you in the next edition with more exciting and interesting updates.
Till then,
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Editorial Team: Divyam Jain, Loveleen Kaur
Design: Anirudh Sharma