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The new labour laws in India are going to be implemented very soon. With these new laws there will be huge changes across industries and the different sectors and how people are used to working in India. Starting from the rules and regulations related to working hour and from provident fund to the salary structures, all will have a big change.
The new labour laws will have key changes in the working hours, salary, PF and the leave policy. These laws will have implications on the wages, labour welfare, social security (pension, gratuity), health, safety and the working conditions of the employees.
The reports suggest that so far 23 states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have framed the rules under new labour laws.
Let's have a look at the key changes in the new labour laws and it's implications
Change in working hours
Currently, the working hours are based upon the Factories Act, 1948 at the national level for all the workers in the factories and other such offices. But now, the working hours of the employees in all the sectors will undergo a massive change. According to the new labour laws, the daily working hours have been stretched upto 12 hours while the weekly working hours have been capped at 48 hours, which means that the companies or the factories can make it a four days work week with daily working hours as 12 and 3 week offs.
However, the employees who work for 8 hours per day will get only one week off and those who work 9 hours per day will get 2 weekly offs. Hence, the weekly offs will depend strictly on the respective work hours per day. The Overtime Policy has also been enhanced from 50 hours to 125 hours per quarter across all the industries.
Changes in the salary structure
The new labour laws also suggest that the basic pay of an employee should be at least 50% of the gross salary of the employee. As a result, the employees will then be making more contributions to their PF accounts and the gratuity deductions will also be more which will decrease the take home salaries for most of the employees.
Changes in the leave policy
The new rules state that the employees will now earn a leave for every 20 days of work instead of 45, which is a great news. Further, the new employees will be eligible to earn the leaves after 180 days of employment instead of 240 days of work as is applicable as of now. 30 holidays will now be allowed in Government departments in 1 year, however, the defence employees would get 60 holidays in a year. This will give the employee ample opportunity to relax, rejuvenate and spend more time with family and on vacations.
The maternity leave policy for the female employees has been increased to 26 weeks. Proper facilities and the security of the women needs to be ensured at all time. Over and above that the companies cannot align them in the night shift without their prior consent.
Changes in the Provident Fund contributions
There will be a big change that is going to come under new labour law which is the ratio of the take home salary and the employees and employer's contribution towards the Provident Fund. As the basic salary of the employee will be 50% of the gross salary, so the PF contributions of the employee and employer both will increase, resulting in more retirement benefits or long term benefits specially for those working in the private sectors.
Changes in Full and Final Settlement Policy
According to the new labour laws, the concerned company must have to pay the full and final dues within two days of the employee's last working day after their resignation or termination of employment services. Currently, the full and final settlement is done within 45 days to 60days from the last working day of the employee and in few cases it may go up to 90 days even. So, this will be a huge benefit for the employee.
CONCLUSION: We can clearly see that the new labour laws have a lot of advantages for all the employees from different sectors of the industry. On one hand, there are people who still feel that certain more changes need to be made in the laws, while on the other hand, there are many who are eagerly waiting for the new rules to be implemented as soon as possible. The new rules also talk about working from home which was implemented two and half years back when the COVID-19 pandemic started and that working from home is still going on in many leading private companies and will continue in the same manner. These new rules have been drafted to improve the overall physical and mental well-being of the employees for the benefit of both the employees and the company in the long run.
