Employees will have an option to work for four days a week in India soon. The labour ministry has decided to allow companies to offer flexibility by incorporating changes in the labour codes. Labour secretary Apurva Chandra tells ET Now’s Ruchi Bhatia that the labour codes will be rolled out soon and 48-hour workweek is aimed at providing flexibility to both employees and employers. The weekly 48-hour work limit will stay but employers will be able to deploy people on four, 12-hour workdays per week; or five, around 10-hour days; or six, eight-hour days, labour secretary Apurva Chandra told reporters on Monday.
In addition to this, the Ministry of Labour is preparing a new portal for registration and welfare of workers in the unorganised sector. According to officials, the portal is expected to be ready by June. Registration and other facilities for unorganised sector workers will also be provided on this portal. Also, registration of workers such as contract workers or ‘platform’ workers will be done free of cost. Reportedly, the Ministry of Labour and Employment may finalise the rules related to the four new labour codes this week. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had mentioned the establishment of such a web-portal during the speech while presenting the budget in the Lok Sabha.
The Labour Secretary, however, clarified that having a reduced number of working days does not mean a cut in paid holidays. Therefore, when the new rules will provide the flexibility of four working days, it would imply three paid holidays. The labour ministry had envisaged implementing the four labour codes from April 1 this year in one go. The ministry is in the final leg of amalgamating 44 central labour laws into four broad codes on wages, industrial relations, social security and OSH. The ministry wants to implement all four codes in one go.
