For the first time after the nationwide general strike called by the central trade unions (CTUs) on September 2, a ministers’ panel, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is likely to meet on September 15 to discuss the Labour Code on Wages and the Small Factories Bill.
The panel will deliberate various issues which are also likely to include the Wage Code and the Small Factories Bill. The high-level group had met in December last year to discuss the two legislations and at that time everybody was on board regarding the content of the legislations, the group decided to put them on hold till the passage of GST Bill. Now the road ahead seems to be clear for the government to push for more big-ticket legislation.
The Wage Code seeks to empower government to fix a minimum wage applicable in all sectors across the entire country and also allow fixing a benchmark wage for workers which will have to be adhered to by the states. The states will be free to prescribe higher wages, while the Small Factories (Facilitation and Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill is significant as it aims to improve ease of doing business in India and seeks to create an ecosystem for encouraging small businesses. Besides, it also seeks to exempt small units with less than 40 workers from tedious compliance of 14 labour laws including Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act and Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act.