Plans afoot to implement all four labour codes from April 1

New Delhi: India intends to implement all four labour codes from April 1, paving the way for the rollout of flexible labour laws that will make hiring and firing easier.

“We intend to implement all the new labour codes together from April 1. We have begun the process of drafting the rules and hope to finalise them in the last quarter of this fiscal year,” labour and employment secretary Apurva Chandra said on Wednesday.

The Union labour ministry has reached out to states to firm up rules pertaining to establishments in their jurisdictions to facilitate the simultaneous rollout of all the labour codes from the next fiscal year.


According to Chandra, states will have to be proactive in framing their own rules for subjects in their jurisdiction. “We have written to chief secretaries of all states in this regard,” he said.

The labour codes, which subsume 29 labour laws into four codes, have given ample powers to states to change laws according to their requirement.

While states have jurisdictions over most establishments, the central government has jurisdiction over key sectors like coal and mining.

“We aim to make public the draft rules under three labour codes by November, after which they will be put up for public comments for a period of 45 days,” Chandra, who took over as the new labour secretary on October 1, said.