India to implement new labour codes in FY2022-23

The four labour codes are: Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.

The four codes are expected to affect many aspects of employment and human resource management, such as take-home pay, the number of working hours and the number of days in a work week.

The codes empower the central government, state governments, and other relevant authorities to make rules, which must be published in their official gazettes for a period of 30 or 45 days to enable public consultation.

The central government had finalised rules under these codes in February last year and many states have finalised draft rules that would be implemented in the coming fiscal year.

Some rules of these codes have been criticised, including one which allows companies with up to 300 workers to go ahead with retrenchment and closure without government permission.

However, experts believe these reforms will generally enhance the welfare of workers in both the organised and unorganised sectors, and address concerns of workers and companies.

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In addition, one of the top agendas for the Labour Ministry for the new year is to set up the National Social Security Fund to cover over 380 million informal-sector workers and improve the ease of doing business, according to The Policy Times.