New Wage Code from July 1: Reduced in hand salary, change in leave 12 hours work week and higher PFs

New Delhi, Jun 22: The four labour codes on wages, social security, industrial relations and occupation safety, health and working conditions are likely to be implemented from July 1.

"The four labour codes are likely to be implemented in the next financial year of 2022-23 as a large number of states have finalised draft rules on these. The Centre has completed the process of finalising the draft rules on these codes in February 2021. But since labour is a concurrent subject, the Centre wants the states to implement these as well in one go," officials had said in December.

Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav in a reply to the Rajya Sabha in December 2021 had said that the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code is the only code on which the least number of 13 states have pre-published the draft rules.

There would be a number of changes relating to work culture. They would include a change in the working hours, take home salary and PF contribution. Once the new codes come into force, the take home salary would be lesser as the PF contribution would go up.

There is also a likelihood that the four day work week would be implemented. Employees may have to work for 12 hours a day as the Labour Ministry made it clear that the requirement for a 48 hour weekly work is compulsory.

The highest number of draft notifications are pre-published on The Code on Wages by 24 states/UTs followed by The Industrial Relations Code (by 20 states) and The Code on Social Security (18) states.

In his reply to the Upper House, the minister explained that labour 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.

The central government and some of the States/UTs have pre-published rules under the four labour codes. The central government is pursuing with the remaining state governments to frame the rules under all four Codes, he had said.

The central government has notified four labour codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, on August 8, 2019, and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 on September 29, 2020.

However, the Centre as well as states are required to notify rules under the four codes to enforce these laws in respective jurisdictions. Under the Codes, the power to make rules has been entrusted to the Central Government, State Government and appropriate Government 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 per the minister's reply, draft rules are pre-published by 24 states on The Code on Wages.

These states are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Mizoram, Telangana, Assam, Manipur, UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and GNCT of Delhi.

Similarly, the 20 states which have pre-published draft rules on The Industrial Relations Code are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, Assam, Goa, UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry.

As many as 18 states have pre-published draft rules on The Code on Social Security.

These states are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, Gujarat, Goa and UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

As many as 13 states have pre-published draft rules on The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. These are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Manipur, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and UT of Jammu and Kashmir.