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The labour ministry has notified draft rules for the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, paving way for greater flexibility to employers to retrench workers while making it mandatory for unions to give prior notice before a strike.

Highlights

• Industries will have to file a single return to the authorities under the new labour law regime.
• Further, the number of minimum wages that industries have to comply with is set to reduce to 12, from 540 under central labour laws and to 180-200 under state laws, from 9,000 at present.
• The new codes give powers to state governments to make rules as they will have jurisdiction over most of the establishments. For instance, while the central government will frame around 57 rules for the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, states will have to come up with around 40 rules.

Changes

• As many as 29 labour laws have been converted into four codes.
• The three codes on industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions will subsume 25 labour laws.
• 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.

Source: Business Standard