New Delhi: The new labour codes would soon provide companies with the flexibility of four working days in a week and free medical check ups to workers through the Employees State Insurance Corporation, labour and employment secretary Apurva Chandra said on Monday. The Ministry of Labour and Employment will soon finalise the draft rules under the labour codes, said news reports.
Adding that the 48-hour weekly working hours limit will remain, Chandra said that employers and workers would have to agree to a change in working days. “It (working days) could come down below five. If it is four, then you have to provide three paid holidays…so if it has to be a seven day week, then it has to be divided into four or five or six working days,” Chandra told Indian Express.
The labour ministry has scheduled to implement the labour codes from April 1 and is in the final leg of amalgamating 44 central labour laws into four broad codes on ‘wages’, ‘industrial relations’, ‘social security’ and ‘occupational safety and health’, the report said.
A portal has also been set up for the informal workers and will be rolled out by May or June 2021 for registration and other facilities of workers in the unorganised sector, it added.
The portal would assist in providing such workers with an incentive of free coverage for one year for accidental and disability cover under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, the newspaper reported.
Also read: Explained: Here’s Why Workers, Opposition Parties Are Protesting Against the 3 New Labour Laws
The pitfalls
Just like the farm bills, the three crucial labour law Bills were also passed by a voice vote in parliament. Terming them as draconian and anti-labour, several labour rights activists have raised concerns over the proposed codes.
The Centre claimed that these codes seek to improve the ease of compliance and hiring and firing of workers while keeping labour welfare under consideration.
However, labour unions and activists fear that the new codes will dilute the regulations relating to the retrenchment process among others, and have therefore demanded repeal of the codes.
According to the industrial relations code (IRC), companies with up to 300 workers can lay off people without the concerned state government’s approval. Earlier, the 2019 Bill applied this to units with 100 employees. In the new code, the threshold has been raised to 300.
Also read: Labour Laws Perform a Redistributive Function. Diluting Them Has Serious Consequences.
Apart from lay-offs, the new code will also affect the workers’ right to strike, reports said. By making the process of organising a strike more complicated, the IRC has a provision of penalising those committing an “illegal strike” with a fine up to Rs 50,000 and imprisonment. This will inevitably make the labour powerless.
According to the Caravan’s report, studies conducted by the International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show there is a strong correlation between bargaining power and the rise or decrease of inequality. Weaker bargaining power leads to higher inequality.
Experts have drawn attention to serious issues with the labour codes, including freezing of collective bargaining, leaving out vulnerable workers out of the safety net, further extending working hours, and the suspension of labour inspection.