A meeting of various trade unions, held under the aegis of Kerala’s Labour Department, unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday, urging the Union Government to withdraw the four labour codes. Kerala’s labour minister V Sivankutty said afterwards, “The resolution said the four labour codes should be withdrawn as they are anti-worker and drafted unilaterally without adequate deliberation. The state will not take any step to implement the codes, although the rules had been framed by the state labour secretary in 2021 following a direction from the Centre.”
Effective November 21, the four labour codes — Code on Wages, Code on Social Security, Industrial Relations Code, and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code — seek to ease regulations and compliance norms for employers, and ensure uniformity in wage structure and social security protection for workers.
Sivankutty also said the meeting was attended by Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh state president Unnikrishnan Unnithan, but the “BMS was silent”. On November 21, BMS general secretary Ravindra Himte had welcomed the implementation of the labour codes.
Sivankutty, a senior CPI(M) leader, told the media that next month, Kerala will host a labour conclave during which ministers from states opposing labour codes will be invited. The one-day conclave on December 19 will debate how labour codes will impact the lives of workers and explore the possibilities of the state framing its own labour codes. Experts and trade union leaders will also take part in the conclave, which will ponder the extent to which the state can intervene in this matter, he said.
On the controversy that the state had notified the draft regulation of the labour codes in 2021 itself, the minister said the Centre had convened a meeting of state labour secretaries, which the Union government directed the states to frame rules in this regard. The state labour secretary had framed the rules, and they were published in the public domain for debate. Besides, in July 2022, a workshop of trade unions was held to debate the draft. “So far, no action has been taken on it. The draft will remain as a draft.”
The fact that the state has not taken any initiative on this in the last three years shows Kerala’s firm stand on this issue, he said. “In the recently held conference of labour ministers in Delhi, I had communicated to the Union Labour Minister about the state’s strong opposition against the anti-worker provisions in the labour codes,” he said.