Retrenchment of employees and closure of the company is easy, Parliament approves three Labor Reforms Bills, Government has given benefits

Parliament on Wednesday approved three major Labor Reform Bills, which would eliminate barriers to closing companies and allow companies with a maximum of 300 employees to lay off employees without government approval. The Rajya Sabha passed the remaining three labor codes on industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety by voice vote. During this period, the Congress, the Left, and some other opposition parties boycotted the Rajya Sabha action in protest against the expulsion of 8 MPs.

These three codes were passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday and will now be sent for the President's approval. Replying to the debate on the three Labor Reform Bills, Labor Minister Santosh Gangwar said, "The objective of labor reforms is to create a transparent system suited to the changed business environment".

He also pointed out that 16 states have already allowed companies with a maximum of 300 employees to close and lay off firms without the government's permission. Gangwar said that it is not appropriate for employment generation to keep this limit up to 100 employees, as this leads employers to cut back on hiring more employees and they deliberately maintain their workforce at a lower level.

He told the House that increasing this limit would increase employment and encourage employers to give jobs. He said that these bills will protect the interests of the employees and extend universal social security to the workers by expanding the scope of Provident Fund Organization and Employees' State Corporation.

The government had merged more than 29 labor laws into four codes and one of them (Wages Code Bill, 2019) has already been passed. The bills passed on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha are - 'Occupational Safety, Health and Working Code 2020,' Industrial Relations Code 2020, and 'Social Security Code 2020'. These include provisions related to livelihood security in an establishment, regulation of health and working conditions, investigation and determination of industrial disputes, and social security of employees.