THE NEW LABOR CODES

India’s four new Labour Codes—Code on Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security, and OSH&WC—came into force on November 21, 2025, consolidating 29 existing laws into(Many of India’s labour laws were framed in the pre-Independence and early post-Independence era

1930s–1950s, at a time when the economy and world of work were fundamentally different) modern, simplified frameworks for wages, worker rights, social security (including gig/platform workers), and workplace safety, aiming for better welfare, compliance, and global alignment.

The Four Codes:

1. Code on Wages, 2019.

2. Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

3. Code on Social Security, 2020.

4. Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code).

Key Impacts:

1. Wages: Standardized minimum wages and payment rules, with fixed-term employees now eligible for gratuity after one year.

2. Social Security: Extended coverage to gig, platform, and contract workers.

3. Industrial Relations: Streamlined dispute resolution and employment terms.

4. Safety & Health: Improved standards with an inspector-cum-facilitator approach.

5. Compliance: Simplified processes with single registration and return systems.

Purpose: These reforms aim to modernize India’s labor laws, enhance worker welfare, simplify compliance for businesses, and align with international best practices for a more resilient, future-ready workforce for Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

KEY CHANGES AT A GLANCE

Benefits of Labour Reforms Across Key Sectors:

1. Fixed-Term Employees (FTE):

• • FTEs to receive all benefits equal to permanent workers, including leave, medical, and social security.
  • Gratuity eligibility after just one year, instead of five.
  • Equal wages as permanent staff, increasing income and protection.
  • Promotes direct hiring and reduces excessive contractualisation.

2. Gig & Platform Workers:

• • ‘Gig work’, ‘Platform work’, and ‘Aggregators’ have been defined for the first time.
  • Aggregators must contribute 1–2% of the annual turnover, capped at 5% of the amount paid/payable to gig and platform workers.
  • Aadhaar-linked Universal Account Number will make welfare benefits easy to access, fully portable, and available across states, regardless of migration.

3. Contract Workers:

• • Fixed-term employees (FTE) will increase employability and ensure social security, legal protection like benefits equal to permanent employees.
  • Fixed-term employees will become eligible for gratuity after one year of continuous service.
  • Principal employer will provide health benefits and social security benefits to contract workers.
  • Workers to get free annual health check-up.

4. Women Workers:

• • Gender discrimination legally prohibited.
  • Equal pay for equal work ensured.
  • Women are permitted to work night shifts and in all types of work (including underground mining and heavy machinery), subject to their consent and mandatory safety measures.
  • Mandatory women’s representation in grievance redressal committees
  • Provision to add parents-in-law in Family Definition of Female employees, expanding dependent coverage and ensuring inclusivity.

5. Youth Workers:

• • Minimum wage is guaranteed for all workers.
  • All workers to get appointment letters, – promoting social security, employment history and formal employment.
  • Worker exploitation by employers is prohibited—payment of wages during leave has been made mandatory.
  • To ensure a decent standard of living, workers will receive wages as per the floor wage determined by the Central Government.

6. MSME Workers:

• • All MSME workers covered under the Social Security Code, 2020, eligibility based on employee count.
  • Minimum wage guaranteed for all workers.
  • Workers will have access to facilities such as canteens, drinking water, and rest areas.
  • Provisions for standard working hours, double overtime wages, and paid leave.
  • Timely wage payment ensured.

7. Beedi & Cigar Workers:

• • Minimum wages guaranteed for all.
  • Working hours capped at 8 -12 hours per day, 48 hours per week has been capped.
  • Overtime Work beyond prescribed hours, to be consent based and pay at least double the normal wage rate.
  • Timely payment of wages ensured.
  • Workers eligible for Bonus after completing 30 days of work in a year.

8. Plantation Workers:

• • Plantation workers are now brought under the OSHWC Code and the Social Security Code.
  • Labour Codes apply to plantations with more than 10 workers or 5 or more hectares.
  • Mandatory safety training on handling, storing, and using chemicals.
  • Protective equipment mandatory to prevent accidents and chemical exposure.
  • Workers and their families to get full ESI medical facilities; Education facilities for their children are also guaranteed.

9. Audio-Visual & Digital Media Workers:

• • Digital and audio-visual workers, including journalists in electronic media, dubbing artists, and stunt persons will now receive full benefits.
  • Mandatory appointment letter for all workers – clearly stating their designation, wages, and social security entitlements.
  • Timely payment of wages ensured.
  • Overtime Work beyond prescribed hours, to be consent based and pay at least double the normal wage rate.

10. Mine Workers:

• • The Social Security Code treats certain commuting accidents as employment-related, subject to conditions of time, and place of employment.
  • Central Government notified standards to standardize workplace occupational safety and health conditions.
  • Health safety for all workers will be ensured. Free annual health check-up will be provided.
  • Limit on working hours set to 8 to 12 hours per day, 48 hours per week to ensure health and work-life balance.

11. Hazardous Industry Workers:

• • All workers will receive free annual health check-ups.
  • Central Government will frame national standards for better safety of workers.
  • Women can work in all establishments, including underground mining, heavy machinery, and hazardous jobs, ensuring equal job opportunities for all.
  • Mandatory safety committee at each site for on-site safety monitoring, and safe handling of hazardous chemicals ensured.

12. Textile Workers:

• • All Migrant Workers (direct, contractor-based and self-migrated) to get Equal wages, welfare benefits and PDS portability benefits.
  • Workers can raise claims for upto 3 years for settlement of pending dues, facilitating flexible and easy resolution.
  • Provision for double wages for workers for overtime work.

13. IT & ITES Workers:

• • Release of Salary mandatory by the 7th of every month. Transparency and trust ensured.
  • Equal pay for equal work made mandatory, women’s participation is strengthened.
  • Facility for women to work night shifts in all establishments – women to get opportunity to earn higher wages.
  • Timely resolution of harassment, discrimination, and wage related disputes.
  • Guarantee of social security benefits through fixed-term employment and mandatory appointment letters.

14. Dock Workers:

• • All Dock workers to get formal recognition, Legal Protection.
  • Mandatory appointment letters to guarantee social security benefits.
  • Provident fund, pension, and insurance benefits ensured for all, whether contract or temporary dock workers.
  • Employer-funded annual health check-ups mandatory.
  • Dock workers to get mandatory medical facilities, first aid, sanitary and washing areas, etc., to ensure decent work conditions and safety.

15. Export Sector Workers:

• • Export sector fixed term workers to receive gratuity, provident fund (PF), and other social security benefits.
  • Every worker to have the option of availing annual leaves after 180 days of work in a year.
  • Every worker to get right to timely wage payment and no unauthorized wage deductions and no wage ceiling restrictions.
  • Women allowed to work in night shifts with consent, ensuring opportunity to earn higher income.
  • Safety and welfare measures include mandatory written consent, double wages for overtime, safe transportation, CCTV surveillance, and security arrangements.

Beyond the major welfare initiatives already highlighted, the Labour Codes introduce several further reforms that strengthen worker protection and simplify compliance for employers:

• • National Floor Wage to ensure no worker receives a wage below the minimum living standard.
  • Gender-neutral pay and job opportunities, explicitly prohibiting discrimination—including against transgender persons.
  • Inspector-cum-Facilitator system, shifting enforcement towards guidance, awareness and compliance support rather than punitive action.
  • Faster and predictable dispute resolution, with two-member Industrial Tribunals and the option to approach tribunals directly after conciliation.
  • Single registration, single licence and single return across safety and working-conditions requirements, replacing multiple overlapping filings.
  • National OSH Board to set harmonised safety and health standards across sectors.
  • Mandatory safety committees in establishments with 500+ workers, improving workplace accountability.
  • Higher factory applicability limits, easing regulatory burden for small units while retaining full safeguards for workers.

In line with the wide-ranging consultations carried out during the drafting of the Labour Codes, the Government will likewise engage the public and stakeholders in the framing of the corresponding rules, regulations, schemes, etc. under the Codes. During transition, the relevant provisions of the existing labour Acts and their respective rules, regulations, notifications, standards, schemes, etc. will continue to remain in force.

Weaknesses and criticisms

1. Dilution of Workers’ Bargaining Power: Higher thresholds for standing orders and layoffs (e.g., Industrial Relations Code) reduce protections for workers in medium-sized establishments. Easier retrenchment and closure powers for employers weaken collective bargaining. Risk of “hire and fire” flexibility without commensurate social security depth.

2. Ambiguity in Definitions & Excessive Delegation: Many critical aspects (minimum wage fixation, social security schemes, thresholds) are left to rules, schemes, and executive notifications. Terms like “gig worker benefits”, “floor wage”, and “appropriate government” lack clarity.

3. Informal Sector Still Vulnerable: Though codes promise universal coverage, actual access depends on registration, portability, and fiscal capacity of States. Gig and platform workers are recognised, but benefits are not rights-based—they depend on future schemes.

4. Weak Trade Union & Right-to-Strike Provisions: Industrial Relations Code makes strikes harder by extending prior notice requirements even to non-essential sectors. Recognition of negotiating unions is threshold-based, disadvantaging fragmented labour- Article 19(1)(c) vs regulatory restrictions.

5. Compliance Simplification May Reduce Inspections: Shift to web-based inspections and self-certification may reduce deterrence. Inspector-cum-facilitator model risks regulatory capture in weak institutional contexts.

6. Occupational Safety Provisions: Uneven & Under-Enforced: OSH Code expands coverage but implementation depends on State capacity. Small establishments and informal worksites may escape effective safety oversight.

7. Gender Concerns: Safety vs Consent Paradox: Allowing women to work night shifts is progressive, but safety responsibilities are largely employer-defined. In practice, women workers may face implicit coercion to “consent”.

8. Federal & Implementation Challenges: Labour is a Concurrent List subject, but States vary widely in readiness to frame rules. Delayed rule-making has stalled full operationalisation of codes.

9. Limited Fiscal Commitment: Expanding social security without clear funding roadmap. Heavy reliance on employer/worker contributions. Risk of under-funded welfare architecture.

The core criticisms

Constitutional and ILO problems 

Way Forward:

1. Flexibility with Guaranteed Security (Flexi-Security Model): Link ease of retrenchment with automatic social security triggers. Make social security rights-based, not scheme-dependent.

2. Lower Thresholds or Graduated Protections: Introduce graded standing orders and adopt simplified standing orders for establishments with 100–299 workers, full standing orders beyond 300.

3. Strengthen Collective Bargaining Mechanisms: Mandate works committees / grievance redressal councils even in non-unionised workplaces.

4. Rebalance Right-to-Strike Provisions: Retain notice requirements but limit them to essential services. Protect strike as a last-resort bargaining tool, not an illusionary right.

5. Deepen Social Security for Retrenched Workers: Create a National Worker Transition Fund-funded jointly by Centre, States, and employers.

6. Institutionalise Social Dialogue: Revive tripartite mechanisms (government–employers–workers).

7. Constitutional Alignment: Explicitly align labour rules with Article 14, Article 19(1)(c), Article 21, DPSPs (Articles 39, 41, 42, 43) and ILO-Consistent Labour Conventions 87 & 98.

ILO: “Labour is not a commodity.”
B.R. Ambedkar: “Political democracy cannot last unless it lies at the base of social democracy.”

CONCLUSION

Over the past decade, India has expanded social-security coverage dramatically, rising from about 19% of the workforce in 2015 to more than 64% in 2025, ensuring that protection and dignity reach workers across the country, and also earning recognition in the global arena for this milestone achievement in social protection.

The implementation of the four Labour Codes marks the next major step in this trajectory, further widening the social-security net and embedding portability of benefits across states and sectors.

By reducing compliance burden and enabling flexible, modern work arrangements, the Codes boost employment, skilling and industry growth, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to a pro-worker, pro-women, pro-youth and pro-employment labour ecosystem.

29 Laws subsumed under the Four Labour Codes

I. Code on Wages, 2019

II. Industrial Relations Code, 2020

III. Code on Social Security, 2020

IV. Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020

Best State Practices on Labour Laws (India)

Constitutional Provisions Related to Labourers

Labour Codes: ILO Conventions

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