The government introduced three separate labour codes – Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020, Code on Social Security Bill, 2020 and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill, 2020 in the Lok Sabha on 19 th of September 2020.
The Laws propose significant changes to make them less rigid for industry, while strengthening the safety net of workers, but they have received criticism by experts and workers alike.
In the Code bill, there has been an introduction of conditions restricting the rights of workers to strike, alongside an increase in the threshold relating to layoffs and retrenchment in industrial establishments having 300 workers from 100 workers or more at present — steps that are likely to provide more flexibility to employers for hiring and firing workers without government permission.
Experts have remarked that the laws would enable companies to have more autonomy and hence, this power can be misused to introduce arbitrary service conditions for worker. Analysts say the increase in the threshold for standing orders will water down the labour rights for workers in small establishments
having less than 300 workers. Hence, for smaller organisations with 300 workers, misconduct and retrenchment for economic reasons will be a very easy possibility of misconduct. This change will encourage demolition of employment security.
The Industrial Relations Code also introduces new conditions for carrying out a legal strike. The time period for arbitration proceedings has been included in the conditions for workers before going on a legal strike as against only the time for conciliation at present. For instance, the IR Code proposes that no person employed in an industrial establishment shall go on strike without a 60-day notice and during the pendency of proceedings before a Tribunal or a National Industrial Tribunal and sixty days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
The IR code has expanded to cover all industrial establishments for the required notice period and other conditions for a legal strike even when The Standing Committee on Labour had recommended against the expansion of the required notice period for strike beyond the public utility services like water, electricity, natural gas, telephone and other essential services. At present, a person employed in a public utility service cannot go on strike unless he gives notice for a strike within six weeks before going on strike or within fourteen days of giving such notice, which the IR Code now proposes to apply for all the
industrial establishments.
In conclusion, imposing such conditions and increasing the legally permissible time frame before the workers can go on a legal strike is an attempt to hamper the freedom that the workers have to voice out their opinions. Smaller organisations have also been given more freedom to function more
autonomously, thereby putting the safety and security of employees at risk.
The introduction of Labour Codes has been criticized for another reason as well. The government has been criticized for introducing the laws in the midst of the crisis where the entire economy of the nation is already perishing. The impact of these laws on its stakeholders is uncertain as there hasn’t been enough deliberation or discussion to implement the laws at a national level. But the silver lining of the Code, however, is that it has dropped the earlier provision for temporary accommodation for workers near the worksites. It has though proposed a journey allowance — a lump sum amount of fare to be
paid by the employer for to and fro journey of the worker to his/her native place from the place of his/her employment.
Even after the assessment and review of several experts and organisations, the impact that these new codes will have remains unclear. Until then we can only hope that these changes were not for the worse.
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