Centre notifies three labour codes subsuming 25 laws after President's nod

The new labour laws will be made effective by the government later

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has notified the three labour codes, passed by the Parliament recently, after securing the nod of President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday.

However, the government is yet to take a decision on when to make the codes effective. Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar had told Press Trust of India in an interview a few days ago that the government will try to implement all the four labour codes together by this December.

The Central government has the power to notify a certain portion of the new laws from a different date, according to the gazette notifications dated September 29.

The three codes on – industrial relations, social security and, occupational safety, health and working conditions will subsume 25 labour laws. The codes got approval of the Parliament during the monsoon session when the Opposition organised a boycott to oppose the farm Bills.

The fourth one, code on wages, which combined four labour laws became a law in August 2019. However, the government is yet to make the law effective as it plans to introduce all the four laws together.

Apart from rationalizing various provisions of the law and unifying workplace-related definitions, the government has brought about key changes to the labour laws. These include: easier retrenchment norms, flexibility in hiring contract workers, equal social security benefits for fixed-term and permanent staff, social security cover for gig and migrant workers and relaxation to smaller factories from labour laws.