Minister for Labour V. Sivankutty has said that though the State had notified the draft rules for the four new Labour Codes and sought various opinions, it did not take any follow-up action in the wake of objections from trade unions.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the Minister said States were under huge pressure to frame rules for the four Codes in 2020. Following this, the draft rules were prepared and notified and opinions of various sections sought since Kerala was not ready to implement them unilaterally.
At a workshop in the State capital in July 2022 in which trade unions, management representatives, and legal experts took part, the trade unions had raised sharp objections to the ‘anti-worker’ Labour Codes.
Consequently, as the Labour Minister, he had directed that no further action be taken on the Codes as it became evident that a majority of the provisions in them could not be implemented. In the past three years, the State’s position had remained the same, Mr. Sivankutty said.
The State’s objection to the ‘anti-worker’ provisions in the Codes had been communicated to the Union Labour Minister at a recent meeting of Labour Ministers of various States in New Delhi.
