Implementation and Implications of the New Labour Codes in India

The Indian government’s ambitious labour reform effort has taken shape in the form of four new labour codes. These aim to simplify India’s employment laws, improve compliance efficiency and strengthen labour protection. To that end, the Indian government has recently approved the enactment of three new labour codes – the Social Security Code, the Industrial Relations Code (“IR Code”) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (“OSH Code”). These labour codes have been passed by the Indian legislature and are on their way to becoming law; the four codes, along with the three labour codes and the Wage Code (which was passed in 2019), will transform and consolidate a large number of labour laws in India and will undoubtedly have an impact on companies and their employment policies in India.

Minimum Wages Act, 1948

 

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948,

किमान वेतन कायदा, १९४८,

The First Step in the direction of fixing minimum wages was taken in April 1946, when a bill to provide for fixing minimum wages in certain employments wherein sweated labour was most prevalent or where was a big chance of exploitation of labour was introduced in the Central legislative Assembly. The Bill as finally passed by the Dominion Legislature received the assent of the Governor-General on 15^th March 1948 and it come to be known as the Minimum Mages Act, 1948. It was passed to give effect to the resolution passed by the Minimum Wages Fixing Machinery Convention held at Geneva in 1928. The relevant resolution of the convention is embodied in Articles 223 to 233 of the International Labour Code. The Object of these resolutions as stated in Article 224 was to fix minimum wages in industries in which no arrangements exist for the effective regulation of wages by the agreements or otherwise and wages are exceptionally low. [Chapra and Apte, The Minimum Wages Act 1948, (1973) p.1]

            Gazette of India – 1946 at Page No. 224 explains the objective of Act, 1948 as follow- The Justification for statutory fixation of minimum wages is obvious. Such provisions which exist in more advance countries are even more necessary in India, where workers organizations are yet poorly developed and the workers' bargaining power is consequently poor.”