NEW DELHI: The new Codes on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, Social Security, and Industrial Relations passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday will cut down the web of paperwork and switch to a “One Licence, One Registration, One Return” mechanism to ramp up ease of doing business in India.
The labour reforms, which Minister of State for Labour Santosh Gangwar described as “game changing reforms” in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, will bring down the number of registrations required under existing labour laws from eight to 1, licenses from four to one and the number of returns filed under the labour laws also down from eight to one.
The move, which labour ministry officials said will put India among the Top 20 countries on the Ease of Doing Business, also entails provisions such as the setting up of a Social Security Fund for unorganised, gig and platform workers, a formal grievance redressal mechanism, and the end of what is referred to as “Inspector Raj”. Under the new labour codes, inspections of business establishments will be conducted through a “randomised, web-driven system”, a step towards faceless checks like in the case of Income Tax assessments, which will mean that labour inspectors will conduct physical checks only upon being prompted by the web-driven system.
Key provisions of the new codes also include extension of benefits such as leave, social security and gratuity to all persons engaged under fixed-term employment – which were not available in the earlier law. Under the OSHWC Code, workers who sustain injuries while on the job, will also receive 50% of the penalty imposed on the establishment by Court, in addition to the compensation the worker is due to receive.
Government officials said while the Codes have widened the expanse of social security benefits to cover all kinds of workers, to help businesses, the Codes have reduced the maximum jail term possible under labour laws from the existing 7 years to 3 years.
Under the new codes, the definition of working journalists has been expanded to include electronic and digital media, which was not covered under labour laws earlRead More – Source
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