The Worker Codes 2021

 Konichiwa. I'm me and you are you. What a pointless start to this really important discussion. Now, enough of this unnecessary banter, let's get to the point. Well lately, I've been reading about the new worker ( labour ) codes that will be implemented from the financial year 2022 -23.

  First of all, why should it bother? They are just some changes will it really affect us? Guess what it does. It may affect you directly or indirectly. Directly because my parents and some of the readers are in the work force and the codes change their work life, their salaries and much more. So it is really important.

  Now let's get to what is going to happen. The previous 29 worker LAWS are being replaced by 4 CODES. LAWS need a discourse in the Parliament and they must be approved by majority of the MPs. Codes are directly implemented and there will be no discussion on it in the Parliament. There will be direct implementation of these codes from April of this year. 

  Here are the major changes that will take place. Note that these are not all the changes. They are just major. There is a lot of stuff but it became really boring for me with all the technical stuff I didn't understand. So here is the list.

  So, for the first change. There's going to be a change in the number of working days. Instead of the earlier 5 days of work now you need to go for work only 4 days a week and 3 holidays. Which is amazing right? But there is a catch. The working hours are increased to 12 hours from the previous 8 hours. If you know simple math, you must have understood that the working hours effectively got increased. Earlier it was 5 days a week and 8 hours per day which made it 40 working hours per week. Now it is 4 days a week and 12 hoyrs a day which is 48 working hours per week, effectively increasing 8 hours i.e, one whole day of work but in less gap. This is obviously going to stress the employees and there is no need to mention the amount of preference our mental health gets in our society. 
  Now let's get to the second major change. The salary is going to be reduced. We'll not technically but effective per month salary that comes into the employee's hand is going to get reduced. This is because the remaining amount is going to be added as CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS POST RETIREMENT SCHEMES like Provident fund, etc. ( I only know that PF is a post retirement scheme. If you know any other scheme like this please lemme know. 😊 )

  The next change we are going to look into is regarding the worker's unions. Now there are worker unions like the teacher's union, labour union, etc. And they conduct elections and ELECT a leader. Now after the implementation of the laws, this elected leader must be approved by the government. The candidates who want to participate an election must also get an approval from the government. This governmental involvement is going to effect the process of workers asking for their rights ( if violated ) or raise any issue or ask the government to increase the benefits 

  The right to protest by a strike i.e, employees choosing not to work so that their authority listens to their requests ( A COMPLETELY DEMOCRATIC PROCESS ) can be termed legal or illegal by the government. Here is what's going to happen. If you are working and your work conditions aren't good, you aren't getting paid enough or you are you work overtime but still get underpaid, you choose to protest because you are not satisfied. You will go on a strike and the government has the right to declare it a legal strike or an illegal strike. If yhe protest is legal, you can carry on but if it is illegal, you will be jailed. When going to tell you whether it is legal or not? The government. How does the government know whether you are doing a legal or am illegal protest? It has some committees. But the thing is, Indian governments use committees to take actions only in the fields if science and foreign affairs. Our ex finance secretaries say that the current finance commission is not upto the mark. So I'm bringing in all of this here because the fact that your protest is legal or illegal is most likely to be based on the political party in power. 

  Now let's talk about working over time. The codes ensure that if you work over time for atleast 15 minutes, you will get the payment for your overtime work. There is going to be a scale for the payment which makes it compulsory for your employer to give you the overtime payment. What a great news inn'it? Don't feel so happy because they are NOT legally guaranteed. This means if the employer wants to pay he will if he doesn't want to he will not pay you and you can't go to the courts for that. Why is it not legally guaranteed? It's because, according to the codes the definition of wages excludes overtime, paid leave and holiday wages. This removes the legal guarantee. 

  In a similar way, these four codes effect many other work related issues like work place safety and payment of salaries and a multitude of ranges of factors that effect a worker's life. I got to learn and understand a very few aspects of the new codes and how its going to affect a workers life. There are many advantages like getting paid for an overtime of 15 minutes, getting an extra weekly holiday like I mentioned earlier. Better workplace safety measures taken for all genders, etc. With them there are also disadvantages like increased working hours per week, decreased monthly salaries, etc. 

  While there are protests going around to not allow these worker codes' implementation, one must await for the winter session of the Parliament which may happen in this month or in the next month. Looking forward for the government's reply on it. 

Opinion : I'm not going to give a dish-clay-maar this time because i feel like repeating myself many times isn't going to solve the problem. 

  I feel like it's a major blow to the work force but a huge advantage to people who do business. What a gujju thing to do. Ig which Gujarati guy's idea it was. ( *coughs* NaMo )

I have only one example to back this. The working hours are increased. Work must be done in less time. 48 hours per week is like according to the current system it is 6 days work. That must be done in 4 days and the other three days are holidays. That is going to increase the efficiency in the short term and in the long term I guess we need to wait and watch. 

  Took me 2 weeks to read, think and write about the entire thing eventhough it is really long it is just a drop of the ocean. There are many changes that are going to take place. You can read about them on the internet or in the newspapers. Hope you liked it. Please consider following this page and me on Instagram @sai_sarath_vatluri . Please let me know in the comments below what do you think about the laws. Hope you have a happy day.