Jammu: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a high-level meeting of the Labour & Employment Department to review the implementation status of the four new Labour Codes—one of the most significant labour reforms undertaken in the country to simplify compliance mechanisms and strengthen worker welfare.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary, Labour & Employment, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan; the Labour Commissioner; and other senior officers of the department.
Reviewing the progress made so far, the Chief Secretary underscored the importance of launching a sustained and structured awareness campaign to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the new Labour Codes among all stakeholders, including employers, employees, trade unions and industrial establishments. He emphasised that widespread awareness is essential for ensuring smooth compliance and effective implementation of these landmark reforms.
He further called for focused capacity-building initiatives for all concerned stakeholders to facilitate seamless transition to the new legal framework. He observed that the true objective of these reforms lies not merely in their notification, but in their effective on-ground implementation, leading to tangible improvements in ease of doing business, enhanced compliance, and strengthened social security and welfare mechanisms for workers across establishments covered under these laws.
Highlighting the department’s efforts, Secretary, Labour & Employment, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan informed the meeting that the department has so far conducted 194 awareness generation camps across J&K, reaching out to 1,046 establishments and sensitizing 14,205 participants.
He stated that the department is further intensifying its outreach strategy through outdoor publicity campaigns, social media platforms and FM Radio broadcasts to maximise public engagement and dissemination of information regarding the provisions of the new Labour Codes.
The Secretary also apprised the meeting that a comprehensive capacity-building programme is being formulated in collaboration with judicial bodies, the J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration & Rural Development (IMPA&RD), and other reputed national-level institutions. These initiatives aim to equip enforcement officers, employers, and other stakeholders with the requisite knowledge and skills for smooth and uniform implementation of the Codes across the Union Territory.
It is to be noted that the four Labour Codes have subsumed 44 existing Central labour laws into a consolidated and modern regulatory framework, thereby rationalising the legal structure, reducing multiplicity of compliances, and promoting transparency, accountability, and worker welfare.