Transition Strategies to Neo-Labour Code Era

Indian labour law is closely connected to the?Indian independence movement. While India was under colonial rule by the?British Raj, labour rights, trade unions, and?freedom of association?were all regulated by the:

Indian Slavery Act, 1843, Societies Registration Act, 1860, Co-operative Societies Act, 1912, Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926, The Trades Disputes Act, 1929.

?The Republic is governed in terms of the Constitution of India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949 and came into force on 26th January, 1950. The Constitution provides for?a Parliamentary form of government?which is federal in structure with certain unitary features.

?The?Constitution of India?(Bharatiya Samvidhana) is the supreme?law of India contains?395 articles?in 22 parts. Additional articles and parts are inserted later through various amendments. There are also 12 schedules in the Indian Constitution.

Constitutional provisions with regard to labour laws the relevance of the dignity of human labour and the need for protecting and safeguarding the interest of labour in Chapter‐III (Articles 16, 19, 23 & 24) and 7 Chapter IV (Articles 39, 41, 42, 43, 43A & 54) of the Constitution of India keeping in line with Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. Labour is a concurrent subject in the Constitution of India implying that both the Union and the state governments are competent to legislate on labour matters and administer the same.

?The first National Commission on Labour was set up on 24 December 1966 under the Chairmanship of Justice?P.B. Gajendragadkar.?The Commission submitted its report in August , 1969 after detailed examination of all aspects of labour problems, both in the organised and unorganised sectors.?Setup by executive order.

?The second National Commission on Labour (NCL) was set up on 15 October 1999?under the chairmanship of?Ravindra Varma?which submitted its report to the then Prime Minister?Atal Bihari Vajpayee?on 29 June 2002. The first National Commission on Labour recommended that works committee be set up in any unit which has a recognized union.

?2nd national commission on labour was in favour of setting up wages boards for fixing wage rates for workers in any industry. The Second National Commission on Labour (2002) recommended that the central labour laws should be integrated 39 labour laws into 4 groups like:

·????????The Code on Social Security, 2020

·????????The Industrial Relations Code, 2020

·????????The Code on Wages, 2019

·????????The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020