Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav has exuded confidence that four labour codes, which would bring another wave of reforms, will soon be implemented as around 90 per cent of states have already come out with draft rules.
In 2019 and 2020, 29 central labour laws were amalgamated, rationalised and simplified into four labour codes, viz, the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code, 2020, noted the Survey.
During an interaction, Yadav told reporters that around 90 per cent of the states have already published draft rules on four labour codes and he expects the four legislations would become operational soon.
The new laws are in tune with the changing labour market trends and at the same time accommodate the minimum wage requirement and welfare needs of the unorganised sector workers, including the self-employed and migrant workers, within the framework of legislation.
The central government has also pre-published the draft rules for all four codes.
Now states are required to frame regulations on their part as labour is a concurrent subject.
Labour is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and under the Labour Codes, rules are required to be framed by the central government as well as by the state governments.
The central government has notified four labour codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, on August 8, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 on September 29, 2020.
However, the Centre as well as states are required to notify rules under the four codes to enforce these laws in respective jurisdictions.
Under the Codes, the power to make rules has been entrusted to the central government, state government and appropriate government and there is a requirement for publication of rules in their official gazette for a period of 30 or 45 days for public consultation.
The minister also said that the government is working to provide social security to the entire workforce in the country and that is why e-Shram portal or national database of informal workers is being created.
He informed that as many as 28 crore informal workers are registered on the e-Shram portal and the remaining 10 crore would be enrolled during this calendar year of 2022.
As per the government estimates, there are about 38 crore informal sector workers in the country.
About certain reports on the decrease in labour force participation rate, the minister said that the ministry has been working to bring its own surveys on various aspects of employment and has responded to those reports on Tuesday.
He assured that the labour ministry will continuously work to collect data on various aspects of employment for evidence-based policymaking.
On Tuesday, the ministry explained that the labour force and workforce in the country increased steadily during 2017-18 to 2019-20.
The ministry had also stated that there was an increase in the female labour force as well as the female worker population ratio increased during 2017-18 to 2019-20.
The ministry had also stated that making an inference that half of the working-age population has lost hope for work is factually incorrect.
