Cabinet approves bill that subsumes 13 labour laws

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of a bill in Parliament that amalgamates provisions of 13 Central Labour Acts to enhance safety, health and working conditions of workers.

The Code on Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Bill, 2019 is expected to be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of Union Cabinet, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said that the bill will be applicable to establishments having more than 10 employees who will be given appointment letters.

He said the workers will also be entitled to an annual medical check-up.

The new code has been drafted after amalgamation, simplification, and rationalisation of relevant provisions of the 13 Central Labour Acts.

This includes the Working Journalist and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service and Misc. Provision) Act, 1955 and Working Journalist (Fixation of rates of wages) Act, 1958.

Other labour laws included in the code are Factories Act, 1948; the Mines Act, 1952, Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act; Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996; Plantations Labour Act, 1951, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979.

It also includes the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, Sales Promotion Employees (Condition of Service) Act, 1976; Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966 and Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act, 1981.

After the enactment of the Code, all these Acts being subsumed in the Code will be repealed.

Referring to the Code of Wages Bill approved by the cabinet last week, Gangwar said it will benefit more than 40 crore people who will get right to minimum wages.

He said there were complaints that the workers were still paid Rs 40 or Rs 60 a day but the enactment of the law will ensure that they get a minimum of Rs 178 per day. States, he said, were free to fix higher minimum wage.

The Code of Wages Bill is the first in the series of four labour codes. It seeks to subsume relevant provisions of The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Wages Act 1936, Payment of Bonus Act Act, 1965 and Equal Remuneration Act 1976.

Code on Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Bill, 2019, which is the second in the series, seeks to enhance the ambit of provisions of safety, health, welfare and working conditions from existing about nine major sectors to all establishments having 10 or more employees.

An official release said that safety, health, welfare and improved working conditions were pre-requisite for the well-being of the worker and also for the economic growth of the country.

( With inputs from ANI )