It withdrew the three bills that were introduced last year and introduced the three new ones.
According to the minister, more than 29 labor laws have been merged into four codes and one of them has already been approved.
Last year, Parliament passed the 2019 Wage Code Bill.
Gangwar noted that the government engaged in broader consultations on these bills with various stakeholders and that more than 6,000 comments were received online about the bills.
These bills were subsequently sent to a standing committee and 174 of its 233 recommendations were accepted, the minister said.
Congressional leaders Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor opposed the introduction of the three bills.
Tewari noted that these three bills are fundamentally modified versions of their previous forms and urged the minister to withdraw them and conduct more extensive consultations before introducing them.
These bills are also a blow to workers’ rights, he added.
Regarding the bill on safety, health and working conditions at work, Tharoor said that it does not have specific provisions to safeguard the interests of workers in the unorganized sector and also that there was no exclusive chapter on interstate migrant workers.
He also said that the bill is discriminatory as there is no specific provision on the welfare of women.
Regarding the labor relations code, he said that it severely restricts the right of workers to strike and also allows state or central governments to amend the threshold of applicability related to layoffs and downsizing.
Opposing the bills, CPI-M member AM Arif said the bills should be sent to the standing committee.
Previously, the leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), NK Premachandran, opposed the withdrawal of three bills that replace the new bills.
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