In a bid to clear the air over the new labour laws, the government will reportedly soon specify the cut-off for daily work hours. Passed in 2019, the Code on Wages envisages for the minimum and timely payment of wages to the workers. It also stipulates the compensation for overtime work should be at least twice the employee’s regular pay.
The government is likely to limit daily work hours to eight, after which the overtime will begin, the Economic Times reported, citing people in the know.
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The move is aimed at ending the misconception that the new labour laws allow a 12-hour workday, sources told the newspaper.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
Notably, in the draft rules issued by the Labour Ministry in November 2020, it notified that working hours can be extended up to 12 working hours a day - higher than 9 hours allowed under the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions.
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Code on Wages, 2019, was passed in August last year and is likely to be implemented from April 1, 2021. It consolidates four laws relating to wages and bonuses, namely - Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
The code also makes provisions for minimum and timely payment of wages to all the workers in India. It introduces the concept of floor wages wherein the rates will be fixed by the central government by taking into account the minimum living standards of the workers. Once implemented, the minimum rates of wages fixed by the state governments cannot be less than floor wages as determined by the Central Government.
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The code applies to all the establishments irrespective of the number of employees working in the establishment. It also applies to all the employees employed in both the organized and the unorganised sector.
The government introduced the code in a bid to streamline and simplify the country's existing and overlapping labour laws.
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