Five States yet to publish draft rules on Labour Codes: Centre

Union Labour Ministry says it is in discussions with Central Trade Unions and States on implementing Labour Codes

Four of 36 States and union territories in the country are yet to publish the draft rules on the Code on Wages passed by the Parliament in 2019, while five States have not released the draft rules on the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, passed in 2020, the Union Labour Ministry said in Parliament, without naming the States.

The Ministry added that it is in discussions with the Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and the States on implementing the Labour Codes.

Maintaining that labour is on the concurrent list, Union Minister of State for Labour Shobha Karandlage said in the Lok Sabha that after notifying Codes, the Centre had undertaken three tripartite consultations on the draft Central Rules in December 2020 and January 2021. “As per available information, 32, 31, 31 and 31 States/Union Territories have pre-published the draft rules under the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, respectively. For remaining States/ union territories, several meetings were held for facilitating them to frame their respective rules within the ambit of Labour Codes,” she said, adding that meetings were held with the States which were yet to publish the draft rules.

Unemployment rate

Answering another question on India Employment Report, 2024 of Institute for Human Development (IHD) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), she said the report mentioned that in ILO’s Global Report Trends for Youth, 2022, the worldwide youth unemployment rate was 15.6% in 2021. “Further, as per World Employment and Social Outlook Trends, 2024 by ILO, globally, in 2023, the youth unemployment rate was 13.3%,” she said.

She added that the official data source of employment/ unemployment indicator in India at present is the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18. “As per the latest available Annual PLFS reports, the estimated Unemployment Rate (UR) on usual status for youth of age 15-29 years in the country in the year 2023-24 was 10.2% which is lower than global levels. Further, the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for youth indicating employment has increased from 31.4% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24,” Ms. Karandlage said.

Published - November 25, 2024 09:17 pm IST