Centre to push states to introduce labour codes 'as soon as possible'

The Union labour ministry will try to prevail upon their state counterparts that have not framed rules on labour codes to do so at the earliest so that the four Acts could be introduced “as soon as possible”.

This would be done at the two-day National Labour Conference of Labour Ministers and Labour Secretaries of States/UTs', beginning Thursday in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate the conference, which will deliberate on reforms, social security for informal workers, labour codes and Vision-2047 for workforce among other issues.

Sources said the meeting will be presided over by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav and discussion will also be held on framing of rules under four Labour Codes and modalities for implementation, along with development of portals for licensing, registration, returns, inspections, etc.

“Labour is a concurrent subject. The states and Union Territories need to frame rules on the four Codes,” one of the officials in the ministry said.

When asked about the timeframe on introducing the Codes, sources said this would be done “as soon as possible”. “We are talking to all states,” the official cited above said.

As many as 31 states and UTs have framed rules on the Code on wages so far, while 27 have done so on the code on social security, 25 on industrial relations and 24 on the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code.

When asked why only 24 states and UTs have framed rules on OSH, the official attributed this to the size of the Code, saying it is the biggest Act among four. The sources said this was the first-of-its-kind conference of labour minister, which is being organised to seek the feedback of state counterparts after 2014.

Earlier, such conferences were held in a different format before 2014, sources said.

The conference will deliberate on integrating the e-Shram portal for onboarding social security schemes run by the central government and state governments to universalise social protection to workers and to improve employment opportunities for all.

The e-Shram portal was launched in August last year to create a national database for unorganised workers with the main objective of providing social security and other benefits of government to them. The database will also work as an input for evidence based policies to suit the requirement of the workforce across the country. At present, over 280 million informal sector workers under 400 different occupations have registered themselves.  

The conference will also discuss Swasthya se Samriddhi concept where deliberations will be on improving medical care and services through employee state insurance (ESI) hospitals run by state governments and integration with Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY).

The conference will also discuss the Vision-2047 for the workforce of the country, which may be discussed on the lines of Vision Shramev Jayate @ 2047. There are 38 million insured people and over 125 million total beneficiaries (including family members of insured persons) under the ESI scheme run by the ESIC.

Sources said the number of insured people and beneficiaries are expected to increase by 20 per cent under ESIC ambit after implementation of social security code. The ESIC will also expand its services to all 744 districts of the country by December 2022.