Labour Codes

India, being a founding member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has deep respect for its principles and objectives. The Government of India has always upheld the basic tenets of tripartism. ILO has not commented about India’s lack of compliance with ILO Convention -144 on Tripartite Consultations in implementing the four Labour Codes. The four Codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 have been notified in Gazette of India. Prior to that the Government had done extensive consultations inviting all Central Trade Unions, Employers’ Associations and State Governments. The Government had undertaken nine tripartite consultations on all the four Codes on 10.03.2015, 13.04.2015, 06.05.2015, 14.07.2015, 06.10.2015, 04.10.2017, 22.11.2018, 27.11.2018 and 05.11.2019 inviting all Central Trade Unions, Employers’ Associations and State Governments. All these Codes were also placed on the website for inviting comments from all stakeholders including general public.

Further, all the Codes were referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour for examination. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, in the process of examination of the Codes, had invited the views/suggestions from Trade Unions/ Organizations/Individuals/Stakeholders and also took oral evidence of the representatives of Central Trade Unions and various other Associations/Organisations/Stakeholders. The reports of the Committee were taken into account before these Labour Codes were considered and passed by the Parliament.

As a step towards implementation of four Labour Codes and to discuss the draft Rules on four labour Codes, tripartite meetings inviting representatives of all Central Trade Unions and Employers Associations were convened through Video Conferencing on 24th December, 2020 and 12th January, 2021.  Third tripartite meeting was held on 20th January, 2021 in physical mode.

However, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 reduces the requirement of minimum continuous service in case of fixed term employees from five years to one year.

This information was given by Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.