LS passes three labour codes; Gangwar says reforms to boost investment, widen social security net under ESIC, EPFO

New Delhi [India], September 22 : Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed three labour code legislations which envisage covering over 50 crore workers from organized, unorganized and self-employed categories for minimum wages and social security.
The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, the Industrial Relations Code 2020 and the Code on Social Security 2020 were passed by the House after a reply by Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
The minister said that labour laws had been codified for easier implementation and asserted that the codes have path-breaking labour welfare provisions.
Several opposition parties were not present in the House due to their earlier decision to boycott the proceedings over opposition to agriculture-related legislations.
Gangwar said that setting up of 'Social Security Fund' for 40 crore unorganised workers along with GIG and platform workers will help in widening Universal Social Security coverage.
"After these legal provisions, states shall have to mandatorily prepare database.... Registration of all these workers would be done on an online portal and this registration would be done on the basis of self-certification through a simple procedure," Gangwar said.
He said that the codes would facilitate the extension of benefits of various social security schemes to beneficiaries in the unorganised sector.
"We can say that we would be able to get targeted delivery of social security done to unorganised sector workers with the help of this database," he added.
The minister said the government has extended the definition of migrant workers, so that migrant worker moving from one state to another on their own and migrant workers who have been appointed by the employer from a different state can also be brought under the ambit of OSH code.
At present, only migrant workers who had been brought through the contractor were benefiting from these provisions, he said.
Gangwar also stressed that the changes and reforms in the labour laws have been conceptualized keeping in mind the changing scenario and also making them futuristic so that country marches on a faster growth trajectory.
The minister said that these "path breaking reforms" will help the country to attract the Foreign Direct Investment and domestic investment from the entrepreneurs, end 'inspector raj' in the country and will bring total transparency in the system.
"India will become a favourite investment destination in the world," he said.