Reforms in the Labour Laws

Reforms in labour laws are an ongoing process to update legislative system to address the need of the hour and to make them more effective and contemporary to the emerging economic and industrial scenario.

Government has taken a number of initiatives for governance reforms as well as legislative reforms. The Second National Commission on Labour has recommended that the existing Labour Laws should be broadly grouped into four or five Labour Codes on functional basis. Accordingly, the Ministry has taken steps for drafting four Labour Codes by simplifying, amalgamating and rationalizing the relevant provisions of the Central Labour Laws.

New Four Codes of the Labour Laws

1. Code on Wages
2. Code on Industrial Relations
3. Code on Social Security & Welfare
4. Code on Safety & Working Conditions

Ministry of Labour & Employment has also taken steps for drafting a Small Factories Bill for regulating the working and service conditions of small manufacturing units employing less than 40 workers. Apart from this, amendments in individual legislations have also been taken up.

The process of Legislative reforms involves consultation with stakeholders including Central Trade Unions, Employers’ Association and State Governments in the form of tripartite consultation. During recent months, several such tripartite meetings have been held for considering various legislative reform proposals where the representatives of Central Trade Unions participated and gave their suggestions on the legislative proposals. The suggestions received from the stakeholders are considered by the Government. The legislative proposals are at different stages.

This information was given by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.