New Delhi, Nov 23 (NationPress) The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 significantly enhances collective bargaining, dispute resolution, and job security through clearer and more uniform provisions. The Code not only empowers workers with standardized definitions but also provides employers with increased operational flexibility and improved ease of conducting business. Overall, its goal is to promote industrial peace, enhance productivity, and create a balanced, growth-oriented work environment, as stated in an official announcement made on Sunday.

To broaden access to essential labour rights, the definition of 'worker' has been expanded to include sales promotion employees, working journalists, and supervisory employees earning up to Rs 18,000 per month, thus extending statutory labour protections to a wider portion of the workforce.

The National Commission on Labour emphasized the necessity of rationalizing and simplifying existing labour laws to safeguard workers' interests. The consolidation of three existing laws—the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, Trade Unions Act 1926, and Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946—into the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 is a pivotal step in this direction.

This Code aims to consolidate and amend laws related to trade unions, retrenchment, industrial disputes, and simplify compliance by providing uniform definitions. It seeks to encourage industrial harmony by balancing worker protections with business flexibility while facilitating ease of doing business.

With the implementation of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the number of rules has been cut down from 105 to 51, the number of forms from 37 to 18, and the number of registers from 3 to none, thus alleviating the overall compliance burden to stimulate employment, as explained in the statement. It also ensures access to benefits such as healthcare and sick leave.

The Code broadens the definition of 'Industry' to include any organized activity carried out through cooperation between employers and workers, regardless of capital investment or profit motive, thus covering non-profit and low-capital endeavors.

It extends labour rights to employees in non-profit and non-capital-based organizations and enhances access to formal dispute resolution via Conciliation Officers and Industrial Tribunals. Collective bargaining rights are now granted to a larger number of workers.

A single, consistent definition of wages has been established across all labour codes. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 enforces a 50 percent ceiling on exclusions to guarantee that statutory benefits such as gratuity, retrenchment compensation, and social security contributions are based on a fair and substantial portion of actual earnings, preventing employers from artificially splitting wages to minimize obligations. Legally, this aligns with the principle of beneficial construction in social welfare legislation, providing courts with a clear statutory basis to safeguard workers' rights and reducing previous ambiguities that led to disputes.

Trade unions that previously lacked formal recognition now have a definitive pathway to legal acknowledgment. A union with 51 percent membership within an establishment can be classified as a Negotiating Union, granting it exclusive rights to represent workers in collective bargaining and grievance resolution. If this threshold is not achieved, a Negotiating Council will be formed, comprising representatives from all trade unions with at least 20 percent membership, as further detailed in the statement.