Amidst misgivings by trade unions and objection, the Karnataka government has finalised the draft rules for two of the four labour codes. Draft rules for the other two codes is expected to be finalised within a month.
The Centre enacted and notified the Wage Code in November 2019, and it enacted and notified the Code on Industrial Relations, 2020, Code on Social Security, 2020, and Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition, 2020, in September 2020. The four labour codes that will subsume 29 labour legislations in the country will come into effect once the Union government announces the commencement date.
Reasons for deferment
While earlier commencement dates have been fixed and then deferred, July 1 this year had been fixed as the latest commencement date for implementation of labour codes, resulting in a number of speculative messages on social media. It is now indefinitely deferred as many States are not ready with or have refused to form the draft rules to implement them. Workers resistance has also contributed to the delay.
The Labour Department in Karnataka has completed the process of finalising the draft rules for Code on Wages and Industrial Relations and is expected to finalise the other two soon. Once finalised, they are placed before the Cabinet for approval and then laid before the legislature. Since labour is in concurrent list, draft rules are to be formulated both by the Centre and State.
“Karnataka will be ready with draft rules within a month to implement all four labour codes when the Centre announces the commencement date,” Labour Secretary Manoj Jain told The Hindu. “The State has formed rules based on the skeletal draft by the Centre.”
Labour Department sources said that the draft rules have attracted a large number of objections and suggestions, which are being vetted now by Additional Labour Commissioner G. Manjunath. “Wherever suggestions or objections are valid, they have been incorporated in the final draft. Many are beyond our scope and hence could not be considered.”
Unions’ concerns
However, trade unions say that workers’ interests have been seriously compromised in the labour reforms.
“Though the Centre has enacted the four labour codes, it is yet to notify the Central rules. We told the State government not to come up with the draft till then. Why is the State government in a hurry?” asked Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) national secretary K.N. Umesh. “In social security code, there is no provision for unorganised workers, who constitute 90% of the workforce. There is no job security, and the rights to livelihood, right to organise, and right to strike have been compromised,” he said.
Said AITUC State secretary M. Satyananda: “The code has led to dilution of norms for fixing minimum wage and the right to strike has been severely curtailed with heavy penalties. There is a serious assault on the trade unions in the country.” He added, “The codes severely compromise safety in workplaces because inspection has been done away with and replaced with a facilitation method. Surprise inspection no longer happens.”
