Panel says set up a national code to unify multiple labour laws

New Delhi, August 15 : Taking a serious note of numerous labour legislations existing in the country, the National Commission on Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) — assigned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into labour reforms — has recommended the formation of a National Labour Code in its report. The report on labour reforms is likely to be submitted in two months’ time, informed a Government official.

Given the problems posed by multiplicity of labour laws and resulting areas of overlap, the National Labour Code will be an attempt to codify all existing labour laws in a comprehensive manner at one place. It will be a broad framework of rules and regulations governing employment practices and labour relations, beneficial for both industry and labour force.

Speaking to The Indian Express, NCEUS member-secretary K P Kannan said that the report on labour reforms, in its final stages of drafting, is almost ready and the commission will hold the last round of discussions soon to finalise the recommendations. “A Labour Code, if adopted would harmonise existing definitions and overlapping legislations. It will be simpler and easier to enforce instead of adopting a piece-meal approach towards labour issues,” he said.

The Code is already followed in various countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore, apart from European nations. China too is in the advanced stages of framing a National Labour Code, informed Kannan. Furthermore, the report recommends that the Labour and Employment ministry should take up the task of framing the labour code and it should then expedite its adoption.

The labour reforms report has been prepared by a NCEUS task force led by T S Papola. Apart from examining the need for preparation of a National Labour Code, the task force also looked at several other issues like articulation of minimum wage legislation. It studied in detail the reformation of Industrial Disputes Act, whereby if workers’ groups are willing to agree for relaxation of Chapter 5(b) of the Act — related to firms to seek mandatory prior government permission for retrenchment of 100 or more workers — then workers are entitled to some form of security in terms of entrenchment insurance. The task force has also evaluated the issues related to implementation of contract labour.

Earlier, the PM had asked NCEUS to look into the matter of labour reforms as an additional requirement and submit a position paper on the matter. But...

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