The Code on Wages, 2019, the first law under labour reforms, is likely to be implemented by September as the Ministry of Labour and Employment has put draft rules of the law in public domain for feedback, a senior official said.
Parliament in August last year approved the code to enable introduction of a minimum wage for every worker besides addressing issues like delay in payment to employees.
The labour ministry has put the draft rules issued on July 7 in the official gazette.
“The draft rules on the Code would be open for public feedback for 45 days from July 7, 2019, the day when the labour ministry notified those in the gazette. If everything goes well then the draft rules would be implemented by September after taking into consideration public comments,” a senior labour ministry official told PTI.
Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar at the time of passage of the code had asserted in Parliament that it will benefit about 50 crore workers in the country.
The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 seeks to amend and consolidate laws relating to wages, bonus and matters connected therewith. It was passed in Rajya Sabha on August 2, 2019. Lok Sabha passed the bill on July 30, 2019.
The Code will subsume four labour laws — Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal Remuneration Act. After its enactment, all these four Acts would be repealed.
The Code universalised the provision of minimum wages and timely payment of wages to all employees irrespective of the sector and wage ceiling, he said. At present, the provisions of both Minimum Wages Act and Payment of Wages Act apply on workers below a particular wage ceiling working in Scheduled Employments only.
Source: CNBC TV18
