Easing Labour Compliances

On February 21, 2017, with an aim at streamlining compliances required under certain labour laws and with a view to improving the ease of doing business in India, the Government of India (“Government”) introduced the Ease of Compliance to Maintain Registers under various Labour Laws Rules, 2017 (“Ease of Compliance Rules”).

Under the various prevailing national labour laws, employers were required to maintain several different registers under each labour statute and at times the same register was required to be maintained under different statutes (such as the wage register). This made compliance with these labour laws arduous, inconvenient and a rather slow process. The Government recognized the need to not only simplify but also expedite compliances under these various labour related laws. For this purpose, the Government has introduced the Ease of Compliance Rules. The Ease of Compliance Rules enables employers to maintain consolidated registers in place of the registers required under nine (9) different national labour laws.

The nine (9) legislations for which the compliance have been simplified and registers merged are as follows:

• Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996;
• Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970;
• Equal Remuneration Act, 1976;
• Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979;
• Mines Act, 1952;
• Minimum Wages Act, 1948;
• Payment of Wages Act, 1936;
• Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976;
• Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955.

The Ease of Compliance Rules has resulted in the merger of fifty-six (56) different registers into five (5) consolidated registers that an employer has to maintain. The five prescribed registers are as follows -:

• Employee Register
• Wage Register
• Register of Loans and Recoveries
• Attendance Register
• Register of Rest/Leave/Leave Wages (to be maintained under the Mines Act, 1952, Sales (to be maintained under the Mines Act, 1952, Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955).