An analysis of the impact of India’s Labour Codes on its organized and unorganized sectors

Abstract

Labour law in India consisted of various legislations, most of whose underlying objectives were furthering social welfare and security. India’s labour laws saw a supposed revolution in 2020, with the consolidation of the existing laws into four new Labour Codes. This article focuses exclusively on the impact of the Codes on India’s unorganized sector as well as its Information Technology (“IT”) Sector in which the pink-slip trend is rampant. It also studies how the inapplicability of the Codes to the unorganized sector adversely affects its stakeholder. This analysis is much needed, especially in light of recent socio-economic trends pertaining to labourers in India, especially in newer sectors like Information Technology, specifically the pink-slip trend in the IT sector which was seen to be rampant during the COVID pandemic period. The analysis on the unorganized sector is also significant as it highlights the lacunae in the existing laws and also emphasizes on the insufficient reforms ushered in by the Labour Codes. The article uses the doctrinal methodology of legal research to gather and analyze the data. It also provides an overview of the labour law regime in India and its culmination into the four Labour Codes and ultimately establishes the insufficiency of the Codes in their existing form and suggests prospective reforms.

Keywords

• IT sector
• labour
• Labour Codes
• labour law and unorganized sector