The Congress government in Karnataka is likely to convene a conclave of Labour Ministers from Southern States in January to discuss and formulate their response to the four Labour Codes that the Centre notified recently. The crucial minimum wages revision in Karnataka, pending from 2022-23, is now hanging in the balance even as the State is expected to write to the Centre highlighting the lacunae in the Labour Code. The Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, that will replace 29 labour legislation in the country were notified on November 21. Labour Department sources told The Hindu that the Labour Ministers from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are likely to participate in the discussions on the four Labour Codes. Sources also said that the Kerala Labour Minister has written to Karnataka government on the Labour Code issue. Labour Minister Santhosh Lad is expected to write to the Centre about the State government’s objection to the Labour Code, said a source, terming the codes a “bunch of contradiction besides being anti -labour”. The codes, he said, will not encourage permanent employment in the industrial sector in the future. After the draft was notified in April, 2025, proposing revision of minimum wages in the band between ₹19,000 and about ₹31,000, depending on skills and location, the State government is yet to issue final notification. The proposed minimum wages — pending for revision for over three years — was drafted based on the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Raptakos Brett case, but has been opposed by the employers. Sources claimed that the government has received over 40,000 objections against the proposed minimum wages. Over the confusion and delay in implementation of minimum wages after the codes were notified in November, the source asked, “How can the Centre outline uniform wages or decide on the minimum wages in States? Labour is a concurrent subject.” Sources in the Labour Department said that while the department was expecting to meet the Chief Minister on the minimum wages issue, it got postponed amid the tussle of leadership and talk of rotation of power. “We are hoping for a positive decision at the earliest in this regard,” said the source.
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