Govt to overhaul contract labour system, allow liberal hiring of workers

Contract workers are outside the purview of retrenchment or layoff and trade union laws, making such arrangements attractive to businesses.

The National Democratic Alliance government has sought to liberalise the contract labour system in the country through labour codes introduced in Parliament on Saturday by giving companies a free hand to hire such workers, along with an easier licensing regime.

The Code on Occupational Safety, Health (OSH) and Working Conditions Bill, 2020, facilitates hiring contract workers across the board for companies, even though it has introduced the concept of core and non-core activities in the functioning of a unit. It has also sought to bring more companies out of the purview of the contract labour law by increasing the threshold of