Cabinet okays 4th labour code on social security, says Javadekar

New Delhi: Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that the Union Cabinet has approved the fourth labour code — the Code on Social Security Bill 2019.

The bill seeks to consolidate the laws relating to social security of workers and subsume eight central laws. "In a major labour reform, this social security code is approved by the Cabinet today. This is fourth labour code," he told reporters in a briefing on Cabinet decisions on Wednesday. Last month, the Cabinet had approved Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2019 (third code), which was later introduced in the Lok Sabha.

The Code on Wage has already been approved by Parliament. The Code on occupational safety, health and working conditions (second code) has already been introduced in the Lok Sabha and later sent to a standing committee for review. This would be pushed for passage in the Budget Session after the committee's report submission in the House. He said that under labour reforms, 44 central laws will be codified into four codes.

The Social Security Code will subsume 8 Central Labour Acts namely Employees' Compensation Act, 1923; Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972; Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981; Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996 and Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008.