- The government has introduced the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill,2019 and the Code on Wages Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.
- The Code on Wages Bill,2019 aims to simplify the wage and bonus payments rules besides mandating a national minimum wage.
- The code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019 aims to improve the working conditions of workers across all establishments with 10 or more employees.
- The wage code will subsume four existing laws while the occupational health code will merge 13 related laws.
- However,Opposition parties have asked the government to send the bill on occupational safety to a parliamentary standing committee as it has a vast ambit including trade unions,tribunals,employers and employees.
- Further,trade unions have said that the government has ignored their demands to fix minimum wages under Wage Code as per the International Labour Organisation guidelines.
- The trade unions have also said that Industries are already flouting labour regulations and any dilution of the existing laws will compromise employees welfare.They believe that the government is insisting on changing labour laws without realizing that it is not a shortcut for job creation.
