Introduction Under the existing scheme of labour laws in the country, there have often been doubts over whether particular laws are applicable to IT/ITes companies. For example, the question of whether the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act is applicable to IT companies. Furthermore, there has been a concerted effort by several State Governments to bring IT/ITes outside the scope of certain laws to promote investment and ease of doing business. The new labour codes have…
Introduction The Code on Wages, 2019 subsumes the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 which is the existing enactment regulating and ensuring that workers have a basic standard of life secured through wages that meet their needs. It divides workers into different classes of work known as scheduled employments under the Act and provided for employment-specific minimum wages. The procedure for determining the rate of minimum wage is based on a cost-of-living index number. Minimum wages included…
Overview of the Definition and Its Effect Wages as defined under Section-2(y) of the Code on Wages, 2019 or Section-2(zq) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 or Section-2(88) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 and Section-2(zzj) of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 reads uniformly. Thus, for all of the twenty-nine Central labour laws subsumed into four labour codes, ‘wages’ has the same meaning and import from a definitional perspective. The…
Introduction Currently, the law governing social security for building and other construction workers is the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act, 1996, often termed the BoCW Cess Act. It levies a cess on the employer in relation to building and other construction work that is calculated on the basis of the cost of construction. Under Section-3(1) of the BoCW Cess Act the limits for the rate of cess are fixed between one and…
Introduction The new labour Codes have introduced a uniform procedure for registration and cancellation thereof. Specifically, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 read with their respective draft rules contain provisions on registration. These two labour Codes have greatly reduced the number of registrations an employer has to maintain and have digitized the entire process to ensure that the same is streamlined. This article shall examine…
Current Scenario Under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, licensing norms for contractors can be understood by reading the enactment with its corresponding Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971. At this juncture we must also add that the State rules provide further clarity on the norms respective states choose to adopt. However, for the sake of understanding and comparing the norms under the current Contract Labour Act to the Code and…
Introduction The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 lays down the provisions relating to working hours in establishments. Section-25 under the Code states that no worker shall be required to work for more than eight hours in a day. It also stipulates that the period of work in each day shall be so fixed so as not to exceed such hours, with such intervals and spread overs as may be notified by the…
Introduction In our previous article titled Transgender Persons and Labour Law: A Grey Area, we had discussed the need for concrete steps to address some of the lacunae pertaining to transgender employees in the workplace. Today’s blog shall examine the combined impact of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 read with its corresponding Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. We shall analyze their combined effect on labour law compliance and examine suitable…
Introduction The draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules were released vide Notification G.S.R. 713 (E) on 13th November 2020 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Apart from replacing nine Central rules, the draft rules also provide for the procedure to be followed in the self-registration process by gig workers, platform workers and unorganized workers. They also shed light on the manner in which aggregators carry out self-assessment of the contribution payable under Section-114(4)…
Introduction The new labour Codes have brought in several changes to India’s labour law framework by codifying numerous Central laws. Amongst these is the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 which establishes three national social security programs, those being as follows:- Employees’ Provident Fund Employees’ Pension Scheme Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme The Act has been subsumed under Chapter-III of the Code on Social Security, 2020 which must be examined with the definition…
