Labour codes aim to balance ease of doing business with worker protection. Evaluate in the context of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

The Industrial Relations Code (IRC), 2020 (Act No. 35 of 2020) folds the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Standing Orders Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 into one statute [2][3]. The government presents it as "promoting harmony and ease of doing business" [3]. Taken as a whole, the Code gives employers clear gains in flexibility. It also adds some new protections for workers, but gaps in coverage weaken them.

Gains for ease of doing business

• Simpler compliance: one Code replaces three laws, with far fewer rules, forms and registers [3].
• Flexible hiring and exit: prior government permission for lay-off, retrenchment and closure is now needed only above 300 workers, up from 100 [2].
• Fixed-term employment is recognised by law, which helps seasonal and project-based work [2].

Gains for worker protection

• Fixed-term workers get the same wages and benefits as permanent workers [2].
• Wider 'worker' definition: it now covers supervisory staff earning up to ₹18,000 a month [3].
• Worker Re-skilling Fund for retrenched workers [2], and statutory recognition of a negotiating union for collective bargaining [2].
• Profit motive and capital investment do not matter in deciding what counts as an 'industry', so non-profit activity stays within the core definition [2].

Where the balance tilts against workers

• Strike curbs: the 14-day prior notice for strikes now applies to all industrial establishments, not just public utilities [2].
• Narrower coverage under Section 2(p): the definition of 'industry' leaves out charitable bodies, sovereign functions and "any other activity" the Centre notifies. AITUC calls it "deliciously vague", and the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear its challenge [1].
• Committee warnings ignored: the Standing Committee on Labour said some trust-run institutions are big "business empires" employing thousands. It asked that they be included and that the grounds for exclusion be written into the Code itself [4]. Neither change was made [1], which raises a question of excessive delegation.

The IRC does modernise industrial relations and makes the system more predictable for investors. However, the protections it gives workers are uneven. The balance can be restored by listing the grounds for exclusion in the Code, judging charities by their scale rather than their legal form, and having the Court read "sovereign functions" narrowly. These steps would match the Directive Principles (Articles 38 and 43) and SDG 8 on decent work, and they would make the Code's promise of "harmony" real for both employers and workers.