THE UNION GOVERNMENT is reportedly set to implement the four Labour Codes — the Code on Wages, 2019 (‘CoW’), the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (‘IRC’), the Occupational Safety and Health and Working Conditions Code (‘OSH’), and the Code on Social Security, 2020 (‘CSS’) — on April 1, 2026. It should not.
These Codes are the product of a decade-long consolidation of 29 labour laws, culminating in legislation passed between 2019 and 2020. That timeline alone should give pause. Laws of this consequence, affecting hundreds of millions of workers, deserve more than a decade of legislative inattention followed by a rushed implementation deadline.
The case against proceeding rests on twelve distinct grounds.
Incomplete and inconsistent rule-making
The Codes legislate less clauses and leave numerous procedural and substantive clauses to the rule-making process. As appropriate governments, the Union and the state governments need to make rules. There already exist substantial differences between the Union and the states’ rules and among the states. These will lead to chaotic labour code implementation. The IRC, for example, leaves the scope of collective bargaining entirely to the rules. The absence of synchronisation of rules will mean potential for conflicts and litigation before the dust implementation has even settled. Where one state may permit a broader scope of collective bargaining and another a narrower one, the same company operating across two states will find itself bound by collective agreements of entirely different reach. This is a recipe for inequity, worker resentment, and deteriorating industrial relations outcomes.
