Labour and honour: On the four Labour Codes, the path ahead Politics & News

The Centre’s announcement to implement the four Labour Codes — they concern wages, industrial relations, social security and occupational safety, health and working conditions — has been heralded by the business and investment community as the biggest reform in a long time. Passed by Parliament between 2019 and 2020, the implementation of these Codes was delayed for multiple reasons. The Codes replace 29 laws that regulated employer-employee relations, and significantly reduce the compliance requirements for a company every year. The Centre has maintained that it will hand-hold the States to draft and adopt the Rules in accordance with the Codes — most States and Union Territories have published the draft Rules for the Codes. Free market advocates have always considered India’s labour laws to be a hindrance to its growth potential. Under the Codes, worker-employer relations, social security mechanism and wage and aspects of emoluments will witness huge changes. India needs to generate employment for its growing youth population as it is estimated that 12 million people attain working age every year. This is a trend that will hold for several years. The Economic Survey of 2023-24 noted that there needs to be an average of nearly 78.5 lakh jobs created annually until 2030 in the non-farm sector to engage the rising workforce.

Despite the long delay in the implementation of the Codes, the concerns raised by labour unions have not been addressed in full. Labour representatives allege that the government ignored the pro-worker recommendations of the Second National Commission on Labour, (submitted in 2002) and, instead, accommodated all “pro employer” recommendations and made them a part of the Codes. Those issues are now redundant, but the nature of work is undergoing rapid transformation. Considering the uncertainties due to wars, trade disruptions and climatic challenges, enhancing both agriculture and industrial productivity is necessary and ensuring a healthy worker-employer relationship is key to this. With gig and platform works and artificial intelligence disrupting conservative definitions of work, wage and social security, the Government should take the steps needed to reform the labour sector wisely. The Indian Labour Conference (ILC), which has met 46 times between 1940 and 2015, has not been convened since then. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that labour laws would be changed only after wider tripartite consultations. So, it becomes imperative that the Government conducts the 47th session of the ILC on the Labour Codes to ensure their smooth implementation. In the process, States should also be consulted along with employers and employees.