( a report by KEC correspondent )
Opposition to four Labour codes passed by Central government is increasing across the country putting various parties and state governments under pressure. Under the pressure of trade unions, Rajasthan government has backed down unilaterally on making rules to implement the four labour codes.
On 10th January, the Labour Minister of Rajasthan convened a meeting of trade unions to discuss formulation of rules to implement the four labour codes. However, due to stiff opposition from leaders of AITUC, INTUC, HMS and most other leaders, the labour minister had to back down. He finally agreed that no rules will be formulated without agreement with the trade unions.
“Labour” as a subject is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and under the Labour Codes, rules are required to be framed by the central government as well as by the state governments and there is a requirement of publication of Rules in their official Gazette for a period of 30 or 45 days for public consultation. As of December 2021, all the states have not yet published the draft rules (24 states have published draft rules on The Code on Wages, 20 states on The Industrial Relations Code, 18 states on The Code on Social Security, 13 states on The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code). Thus, there is still an opportunity for the trade unions and working people to pressurize remaining states from publishing the draft rules and force all other states which have published draft rules to withdraw them.