Bill to repeal four Labour Codes introduced in Rajya Sabha

Normally introduced as a mark of protest, Private Member Bills are floated by MPs who are not Ministers (Bills by Ministers are called government bills) and can be introduced in either house of the Parliament, by a member of any party. The MPs who intend to introduce private member bills have to notify the House Secretariat about the bill at least a month before and these bills can only be introduced and discussed on Fridays.

Currently, Private members bills have been capped at three bills/per session by an MP. If there are multiple private member bills scheduled for a particular Friday, then the Parliamentary Committee on Private Member's Bills and Resolutions classifies these bills based on their significance and urgency. For a private member bill to become an Act, it must be passed in both houses and then mandatorily receive presidential assent. The chances of a Private Bill becoming the law are minuscule considering only 14 Private Member Bills have become law so far, the last one being the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968 which was passed in 1970.

Private Bill introduced for repealing the four Labour Codes (Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code) is called the Labour Codes (Repeal) Bill and it asserts that the new Codes have only diluted the provisions given by the previous Labour Acts, instead of fortifying them. The Private Bill states in its Statement of Objects and Reasons, that in addition to eliminating the shield of collective bargaining making it more difficult for the workers to assert their rights, the Labour Codes are intrinsically biased towards employers and corporates, emboldening them to violate the rights of workers.

It has been clearly and explicitly laid out in the Private Bill, that the four codes have tilted the scales further in favour of employers and have widened the scope for workers' exploitation, instead of giving them enhanced Labour rights as the Codes should have aimed to do.

According to the Private Bill, the Code on Wages which was brought in to repeal the (Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976) has encompassed within itself, the selective provisions of these Acts, that not only are predisposed to employer's interests, they also take away the protection that was accorded to workers under the previous legislation. Sections of people like sales promotion employees and journalists have been excluded from the definition of 'employee' and are left at the mercy of employers for their wages.

Furthermore, as per the Private Bill, although the Code on Wages had made tall claims of enforcing and increasing minimum wages, it has still not included any methodology for the same though a concrete formula on Minimum wages has been decided unanimously by the 15^th Indian Labour Conference, reiterated by the apex court's judgment in Raptakkos Brett Case and further asserted by the 44^th, 45^th and 46^th Indian Labour Conference. In addition to this, the Private Bill emphasizes that the Code also keeps the fixation of minimum wages at the discretion of the government without any timelines or mechanisms for it.

Describing the problematic part of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (which repealed the Industrial Disputes Act, 1957, Trade Unions Act, 1926 and Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946) the Bill states that it empowers employers to "hire and fire" as per their own will and volition. The formation of Trade Unions has been made more difficult and the right to strike has been virtually banned because of a plethora of conditions. Moreover, the Bill avers that the code also emboldens the executive to alter substantive provisions through executive order, putting the workers at the mercy of the government.

On the Code on Social Security, which has repealed 8 Labour laws, the Private Bill remarks that it has sought to repeal efficient, operative legislations on social security and has diluted their provisions to the disadvantage of workers, in addition to bolstering the executive to modify significant sections without any parliamentary sanction.

Referring to the issues with the Occupational Safety, health and Working Conditions Code, 2019 (OSHWC Code), the Statement of Objects and Reasons in the Bill says that OSHWC Code has compromised the basic universal human right of eight hour working day, leaving the number of working hours in a day to be decided by appropriate governments. It has also removed several significant definitions like 'weekly working hours, 'daily working hours', 'period of work', 'intervals of rest', 'overtime duty' and 'spread over hours', from the Code and these were earlier specified in the factories Act, 1948 and other Acts. Even the rights of recognition of Trade Unions have been left to "appropriate governments" using words like, "schemes as prescribed" or "rules as decided", the Private Bill asserts. Moreover, certain significant provisions concerning the responsibility and obligations of Employers which were included in the previous legislation to protect the interests of Contract Workers, have also been removed from the current Code, making the already distressed conditions of contract workers, even more appalling or "akin to slavery".

Further remarking that the mechanism regarding the regular inspection of workplaces to examine working conditions and safety matters "which is the lifeline of enforcement of all enactments" have not only been thoroughly tampered with but has also been made ineffectual, the Labour Codes (Repeal) Bill asks for repealing the toothless Labour Codes.