'New Labour Codes will promote harmonious industrial relations, ensure higher productivity & create more jobs'

NEW DELHI: Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, Govt of India on Monday said that the new Labour Codes will promote harmonious industrial relations, higher productivity and more employment generation.

Addressing the webinar '86th Annual General Meeting of AIOE, allied body of FICCI', Gangwar said, "The labour codes will establish a transparent, answerable and simple mechanism along with one registration, one license and less return filing for all the codes. We have

taken several steps through labour codes to help the work force and take care of their well-being."

Gangwar further stated that the government has been constantly striving to bring in the much-needed labour reforms in the country which has not been done for the last 73 years. "In last six years many multi-stakeholder consultations were held with all stakeholders including the employers, trade unions and experts before finalizing these Codes," he added.

Highlighting the benefits of the new Labour Codes, Gangwar said that these will cover over 50 crore workers from organized, unorganised sector for minimum wages and social security.

"Fixed term employment has been introduced and fixed term employee will get the same service conditions as regular employees. This will also benefit the industry as it will provide a flexibility," he added.

He emphasized that in order to discourage sudden strike in any unit, provision of a 14-day notice has been introduced in the IR Code.

"All workers in any establishment, will have to give a 14-day notice before announcing strike. This has been introduced to ensure that during this period, the grievances can be sorted out in an amicable way. There will also be a provision of setting up of a Negotiating Union which will also benefit the workers and industry," said Gangwar.

To remove the inspector raj from the system, Gangwar said, "Inspector will now be called inspector cum facilitator. To bring in transparency, effectiveness and accountability, we have also made provision for setting up a

web-based inspection system. These new Codes will not only make the labour laws simpler but also bring in ease of doing business."