Five states not ready with draft rules on 3 labour codes: Labour minister

Five states are yet to pre-publish draft rules under three codes on Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Four states or Union Territories have also not pre-publish draft rules on Code on Wages, 2019, required to bring labour reforms in the country, showed a written reply by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shobha Karandlaje in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The minister explained that 'Labour' as a subject is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, and under the Codes, the power to make rules has been entrusted to the central government and state governments.

As a step towards the implementation of four Labour Codes, she informed that the central government has pre-published the draft rules.

After notifying the Codes, the government has undertaken three tripartite consultations on the draft Central Rules under all four Codes on December 21, 2020, January 12, 2021 and January 20, 2021.

As per available information, the minister said, "4, 5, 5 and 5 States/Union Territories have not pre-published their draft Rules under the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, respectively".

Meetings were held with those states/UTs to facilitate them framing draft rules within the ambit of Labour Codes, she added.

As per available information, she told the House that 32, 31, 31 and 31 states/UTs have pre-published the draft Rules under the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, respectively.

For the remaining states/UTs, several meetings were held to facilitate them to frame their respective Rules within the ambit of Labour Codes, the minister said.

Under the labour reforms, 29 labour laws have been codified into 4 Labour Codes.

To ensure workers' right to minimum wages, the central government has amalgamated 4 laws in the Wage Code, 9 laws in the Social Security Code, 13 laws in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and 3 laws in the Industrial Relations Code.

Now, all states and Union Territories are required to pre-publish draft rules on the four codes so that these can be implemented in one go by respective governments in their jurisdiction to uniformly enforce them.