4-Day Work Week, Significant Change in Take-Home Pay; 5 New Labour Codes

If the four new labour codes go into effect on July 1, major changes will be made to employees' working hours, annual leave, take-home pay, and so on. States have already released draft rules based on the four labour codes, so implementation is only a matter of time.

Here are 5 points to know how these 4 labour codes will impact you:

• Companies will be able to make their employees work four days instead of five under the new rules.

• If a company chooses a four-day week rather than a five-day week, employees must work 12 hours per day rather than eight in order to maintain the total number of working hours.

• The employees' basic salary must be equal to 50% of their gross salary. Employee and employer PF contributions will increase, while take-home pay will decrease.

• The new rules recognize the work-from-home structure that was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The new rules reduced the eligibility requirement for leaves from 240 days to 180 days in one year, which means that an employee must work for 240 days after starting a new job to be eligible for a leave.

Is a 4-day work week possible?

According to experts, implementing a four-day work week under the current structure may be difficult because employers may have to pay employees overtime for the extra work hours. Companies registered under the Factories Act may not require one employee to work more than nine hours per day and 48 hours per week.

Countries that have a four-day work week and how

Several countries, including Spain, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland, have experimented with a four-day work week, but they have reduced the number of weekly working hours.

What are these 4 labour codes?

These four labour codes are the Wage Code of 2019, the Industrial Relations Code of 2020, the Social Security Code of 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code of 2020.