Pushing for the passage, the labour ministry will table the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and Code on Wages Bill in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament beginning next month. Apart from these two bills, the ministry is also working on Code on Industrial Relations but, it is under scrutiny of ministerial panel on labour issues headed by Finance minister Arun Jaitley.
The Wage Code Bill will enable the central government to fix universal minimum wage applicable on all establishments and workers across the country. The Code on Wages Bill has already been approved by the ministerial panel, and will soon be placed for the Union Cabinet nod. On the other hand, the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will increase the working overtime hours up to 100 per quarter and allow workers to work more and earn more. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in monsoon session last year. Now, it will be pushed for the passage in Rajya Sabha next month.
The code will ensure universal minimum wage for all industries and workers. It will also cover those workers, who are getting monthly pay of higher than Rs 18,000. At present, laws on wages do not cover workers getting monthly wage of more than Rs 18,000. The Code on Wages Bill seeks to empower the Centre to set a minimum wage across sectors, and states will have to maintain that. However, states will be able to provide higher minimum wage in their jurisdiction than fixed by the central government.
The Factories (Amendment) Bill seeks to double the overtime working hours to 100 in a quarter for factory workers with an objective of boosting job creations in manufacturing sector and improve ease of doing business. The current norms allow overtime of 50 hours in a quarter, while the ILO provides for upper limit of 144 hours. The bill also empowers the central government, in addition to the states, to make exempting rules and orders in respect to total number of hours of work on overtime in a quarter, which would ensure uniformity, in its application by various state governments and Union Territories.