With the Union government notifying the enforcement of the four Labour Codes all over the country, the Tamil Nadu government has found itself in a tight corner with regard to the Code on Social Security, as it has been entertaining reservations on the issue.
Ever since the Centre enacted the four Codes five years ago in the place of 29 laws, it had held discussions with the State government over the implementation of the Code on Social Security (CSS), 2020. But, no consensus was arrived at, according to a policymaker.
Of the four Codes, the State government, in April 2022, published draft rules for the three — the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020. As consultations with stakeholders have been held, the government can notify the final rules anytime now. Only in respect of the CSS, no draft rules have been framed so far.
Existing law
Fundamentally, the CSS does not give liberty to the State government to retain its existing law — the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Work) Act, 1982. But, the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008, one of the nine laws subsumed by the latest Code, had allowed States to have any corresponding law, providing welfare schemes more beneficial to the unorganised workers than those provided for them under it.
