The Labour Ministry plans to implement labour codes in 2025, offering social security benefits to informal sector workers. Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya emphasised, “As we stand at the dawn of a New Year, our commitment remains resolute -- building a resilient, inclusive, and future-ready workforce for India", reported PTI.

The rise in gig workers led the government to consider including them under the existing social security schemes or forming new ones for them. Beginning this month, Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra also stated, "We are putting together the scheme for the gig and platform economy workers because there is no traditional employer-employee relationship defined for the gig and platform workers but we need to bring social security coverage for them so that they can be more productive and support the country's economy and the e-commerce and services sector more effectively".

According to Niti Aayog’s India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy report in 2022, the gig workforce is projected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30, up from 7.7 million in 2020-21.

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To streamline labour regulations, the government consolidated 29 existing labour laws into four labour codes between 2019 and 2020.

• Code on Wages, 2019

• Code on Social Security, 2020

• Industrial Relations Code, 2020

• Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020

These reforms aim to provide ease of doing business and social security to workers across formal and informal sectors, thereby boosting the overall economy.

Status Of Labour Codes Implementation

Many states and union territories (UTs) have already published the state-level draft rules for a few or all four labour codes; however, it has to be completed by all states and UTs, and then only their implementation can be done. Regarding this, the ministry expects all states and UTs to complete pre-publishing the draft rules by March 31, 2025.

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Code-Specific Progress

Code On Wages, 2019: Three states, including West Bengal, Meghalaya, and Nagaland have not pre-published the Code on Wages, 2019 rules. Lakshadweep, a UT, is also yet to complete pre-publishing the rules.

Occupational Safety, Health And Working Conditions Code, 2020: West Bengal and Meghalaya have not completed the pre-publishing of the state-level draft rule for this code. This list includes UTs Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and NCT of Delhi, which have not completed the pre-publishing.

Industrial Relations Code, 2020: Three states, including West Bengal, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, and two UTs: Lakshadweep and NCT of Delhi are yet to pre-publish this code’s rules.

Code On Social Security, 2020: Two UTs Lakshadweep and NCT of Delhi, and three states, including Meghalaya, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu have yet not pre-published the draft rules on this code.

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The gig and platform workers were defined for the first time in 2020, under this code (Code of Social Security 2020). This also defines social security as, ‘Social security means the measures of protection afforded to employees, unorganised workers, gig workers, and platform workers to ensure access to health care and to provide income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner by means of rights conferred on them and schemes framed, under this Code.’

The minister reportedly said, "Looking ahead, we are determined to accelerate the implementation of labour codes and introduce transformative policies that empower every citizen to contribute meaningfully to the nation's growth story”.

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These provisions under these codes aim to provide job security, minimum wages, and social security to workers, especially informal sector workers, in old age. The ministry is considering various options and has formed a committee to take suggestions from different stakeholders and develop a policy framework. As per the earlier reports, this framework may be announced ahead of the 2025-26 budget in February.