The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH) was introduced in Lok Sabha on September 19 and passed on September 22. It was introduced and passed in Rajya Sabha on September 23. According to the past enactment, The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, just the interstate migrant workers recruited through contractors were covered under work laws. Hence, the migrant workers who went on their own for employment or looking for employment from towns to large urban areas were not covered under the ambit of the work laws.
Under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 a migrant worker is defined as the person who “has been recruited straight by the employer or indirectly through a contractor in one state for employment in such foundation arranged in another state” or “has gone ahead of his own from one state and obtained employment in a foundation of another state.” The bill gives certain advantages to inter-state migrant workers. The workers have the alternative to profit from the advantages of the public circulation framework either in the local state or the state in which they have been utilized. The advantages under the building and other construction cess fund can profit in the state of employment, and insurance and fortunate fund benefits are accessible to different workers in a similar foundation.
The government has, in any case, dropped a provision in the past draft of the law which made it mandatory for employers “to give and maintain appropriate residential accommodation” to migrant workers “during the time of their employment.” The 2019 Bill expected contractors to pay an uprooting recompense to inter-state migrant workers at the hour of their recruitment, which was comparable to half of the month-to-month wages. The 2020 Bill has eliminated this provision. A parliamentary panel has recommendations on a different section on migrant workers in the code and suggested that each state ought to have a helpline for migrant workers.
In any case, the inspection power to guarantee the execution of such a law has been additionally debilitated by the code. The code doesn’t accommodate forces of inspectors visualized by ILO Conventions, for example, stated in Article 12 “free section whenever and without earlier notification” Article 16 “and as much of the time as conceivable to get the powerful implementation of laws”.
Old laws like the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 ought to be made more proficient by discarding burdensome consistency techniques and ensuring uniform work standards. The Government should help in the development of a different ministry dealing with issues relating to the migrant worker population, ensuring consistency by execution under the domain of governmental bodies. The Government ought to elevate and give help to the NGOs taking a functioning part for the assurance of the lawful rights of the migrant workers and to construct a functioning development to produce mindfulness about their rights, lobbying, and support to forestall the maltreatment and abuse of the migrant workers.
According to a report on the “Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India”, by UNESCO and UNICEF (2013) it states that an unmistakable and compact administration framework should be created to resolve the issues concerning internal movement in India. A framework of material laws committed institutions that guarantee the legitimate execution of such law, arrangements supporting and protecting the rights of migrant workers in India. Quality schooling to forestall abuse of workers, PDS, free healthcare services or health insurance, and to guarantee simple and equivalent access to promising circumstances by the workers. They ought to likewise be integrated into huge scope significant state-level arrangements.
