India needed labour law reform. Now implement them.

The three labour laws passed by Parliament, in the recently-concluded session, have been under discussion for decades. Since labour is in the concurrent list, the central and respective state governments have been enacting laws from time to time. With a plethora of laws in vogue, a need was felt to simplify the labour laws and make them in tune with the current economic environment. The three bills passed by Parliament relate to occupational safety, health and working conditions, industrial relations and social security. Along with the earlier enacted Wage Act, these four codes subsume in the 44-odd central laws enacted during the past several decades. The labour reform bills that replace archaic labour laws with codes have been pending for a long time. The current three bills were presented in Parliament in December 2019 and were referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for examination. After holding detailed consultation with stakeholders, the committee submitted its report to Parliament making several recommendations. The government accepted 174 of the 233 recommendations of the standing committee on labour and incorporated them in these three codes. These codes not only reduce the multiplicity of labour laws but include several reforms which are supposed to be beneficial to both sides.