The Union government will take a bit longer to introduce the much-awaited labour codes even as the majority of states and Union Territories (UTs) have framed rules on them. There were speculations that New labour laws: weekly 4 days work, 12 hour work a day not effected from July.
These are structural reforms and the ministry is for balancing labour welfare on one hand and ease of doing business on the other, a second official said, adding that the union labour ministry is in touch with states, industries and other stake holders and things have progressed well so far, but ” July 1 is not the date we are looking at”.
In response to a question whether the ministry is rolling out the labour codes from Friday (July 1), a ministry spokesperson said “No”. Authorities in the labour and employment ministry said the ministry will make formal announcement when things are ready and codes are getting rolled out but nothing immediately is in the plan.
India has consolidated 29 central labour laws into four codes on wages, social security, occupational health, and industrial relations. While the parliament approved the Code on Wages in August 2019, the rest three were passed in September 2020. But none of them has been rolled out as yet. The labour codes are expected to introduce far-reaching changes with implications for employers and workers.
They will offer greater flexibility in rolling out short-term work contracts, make hiring and firing flexible, and make industrial strikes harder. There will be a new national wage floor that will benefit workers, while informal and gig workers will get a social security net. A change in the definition of wages may impact the take-home amount but will increase retirement savings something that some entrepreneurs and employers oppose because it could increase their employee cost in the short term.
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Among several other provisions, the wage code has underlined that a 48-hour work week will not change. But there may be some flexibility on work hours, which can stretch upto 12 hours a-day if an employee and employer agree on a case-to-case basis. This has given rise to speculations that some sectors and job roles may go for four-day work week but until the final rules are out and codes are rolled out it will remain as a conjecture.
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