Keralam is considering higher minimum wages and wider bonus coverage for workers as part of its proposed state rules for implementing the four Labour Codes, with a draft report handed to the Chief Minister on 4 November 2026.
Labour Minister Bindu Krishna submitted the draft report to Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday, per the IANS wire filing from Thiruvananthapuram. One central recommendation is to change the family unit used to calculate minimum wages, raising the existing unit of three members to five by including the worker’s parents. This would raise the computed minimum wage. The committee also proposed bringing more workers under the ambit of bonus and other benefits.
The report proposes free medical examinations for employees engaged in hazardous and dangerous work processes, and stricter safety provisions for women working night shifts, including safeguards that allow night-shift work while protecting women employees.
“The recommendations seek to ensure that the implementation of the Labour Codes does not dilute workers’ existing safeguards and that their wages, welfare and workplace safety receive adequate protection,” the IANS dispatch noted.
The committee was set up on 22 October at a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister and completed ten days of consultations with trade union representatives, legal officers and labour department officials. It was convened by the Labour Commissioner and included the Law Department’s Additional Secretary, seven trade union representatives and senior labour officials. State-level amendments were earlier examined by the Justice Gopal Gowda Committee, which submitted its own recommendations on required legal changes.
The report also calls for amendments to provisions relating to lockouts and layoffs, intended to give the state government greater powers to intervene. The four Labour Codes came into force on 21 November 2025, and Central Rules were notified on 8 May 2026, but state rules continue to be issued on a rolling basis. Keralam’s draft places it alongside states that are seeking to strengthen worker safeguards within the Code framework. The state government will now examine the draft before finalising the rules that will apply to Keralam’s workforce.
