What’s new in India’s labour laws after the repeal of 29 Acts?

The Central government on Friday brought the Code on Wages (2019), the Industrial Relations Code (2020), the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSHWC) Code (2019) and the Code on Social Security (2020) into force, while formally repealing 29 Central labour Acts.

The shift replaces a decades-old collection of sector-specific laws with four consolidated statutes that introduce new compliance obligations, standardised definitions and uniform regulatory requirements across establishments.

Under the earlier regime, India’s labour laws were enacted at different points between the 1930s and the early 2000s, each carrying its own definitions of “wages”, “worker”, “establishment” and “employer”. Compliance was fragmented: factories, contract labour, shops, construction establishments and transport units were governed by separate licences, registers and inspectorates.

With the repeal of 29 Acts, the labour system now runs on four Codes that unify wage regulation, workplace safety, social security and industrial relations. They impose new duties on employers in terms of documentation, record-keeping, registration, social-security contributions and safety standards.

The notification brings to an end the operation of the following statutes:

Wages Acts repealed (4): Payment of Wages Act 1936; Minimum Wages Act 1948; Payment of Bonus Act 1965; Equal Remuneration Act 1976.

Industrial-relations Acts repealed (3): Industrial Disputes Act 1947; Trade Unions Act 1926; Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946.

Safety and working-conditions Acts repealed (13): Factories Act 1948; Mines Act 1952; Dock Workers Act 1986; Building and Other Construction Workers Act 1996; Contract Labour Act 1970; Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979; Plantations Labour Act 1951; Working Journalists Act 1955; Working Journalists (Rates of Wages) Act 1958; Beedi and Cigar Workers Act 1966; Motor Transport Workers Act 1961; Sales Promotion Employees Act 1976; Cine Workers & Cinema Theatre Workers Act 1981.

Social-security Acts repealed (9): Employees’ Compensation Act 1923; ESI Act 1948; EPF Act 1952; Employment Exchanges Act 1959; Maternity Benefit Act 1961; Payment of Gratuity Act 1972; Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act 1981; Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act 1996; Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008.

Code on Wages, 2019

• Uniform, Code-wide definition of “wages” with inclusion–exclusion formula.

• Minimum wages extended to all employees, not just scheduled employments.

• Standardised working-day norms; overtime at twice the normal wage.

• Failure to pay wages punishable with a fine up to ₹50,000 (first offence) and imprisonment up to 3 months or ₹1 lakh fine for repeat offences.

• Mandatory wage slips, registers and strict payment timelines (monthly wages before the expiry of the seventh day of the succeeding month; final wages upon termination within two working days).

Industrial Relations Code, 2020

• Statutory recognition of Trade Unions through a Negotiating Union or Negotiating Council.

• Fund for training retrenched employees (worker re-skilling fund) established with employer contribution of 15 days' wages, payable within 45 days of retrenchment.

• Definition of “strike” now includes mass casual leave when fifty per cent or more workers employed in an industry abstain.

• Lay-off, retrenchment and closure thresholds reset for prior government permission requirements (for establishments with 300 or more workers).

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019

• Single registration for all establishments employing ten or more workers (except mines and docks).

• Accident and dangerous-occurrence reporting made mandatory.

• Working journalists expressly included in the definition of “worker,” bringing newsroom employees under safety and working conditions regulation.

• Women allowed to work in all establishments, including beyond 7 PM, subject to consent and safety measures.

• Free annual health check-ups required in prescribed categories, including hazardous process workplaces.

• Safety committees may be mandated in specified establishments.

• Mandatory appointment letters for every employee on appointment.

• Work-from-home expressly applies as a workplace. Employer's duties (including ergonomic guidelines and safety maintenance) extend to remote work locations under the general mandate to ensure a "workplace is free from hazards".

• National database for unorganised workers, including gig, platform and migrant workers, to enable uniform registration. The portal is designed to create a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), linked with Aadhaar, to enable the delivery of targeted welfare schemes and social security benefits.

Code on Social Security, 2020

1. Consolidates PF, ESI, gratuity, maternity benefits and welfare board schemes.

2. Definition of “dependents” expanded for social-security entitlement (The definition of "family" is expanded in the OSHWC Code, a companion to this Code, to include dependent grand-parents).

3. National database for unorganised workers, including gig, platform and migrant workers, to enable uniform registration.

4. Statutory recognition of gig and platform workers; aggregator contribution obligations.

5. Gratuity payable to fixed-term employees after one year instead of five.

6. Work-from-home expressly recognised in service conditions for women returning after maternity leave, subject to mutual agreement.

7. Defines “home-based worker” as a person engaged in the production of goods or services for an employer in his home or other premises of his choice, other than the employer’s workplace, for remuneration, regardless of whether the employer provides equipment or materials.

1. Stricter strike regulations

The Industrial Relations Code requires prior notice for all strikes, expands the definition of strike to include mass casual leave and extends prohibition periods, significantly tightening the ability of workers to organise collective action.

2. Higher thresholds for protections

Raising the standing-orders threshold to 300 workers reduces formal protections for employees in establishments with fewer than 300 workers, enabling easier changes to service conditions.

3. Easier retrenchment for mid-sized establishments

Since prior government permission is required only beyond the 300-worker threshold, establishments below that size can retrench or close units with reduced oversight.

4. Complex "wage" definition

The Wage Code introduces a single statutory definition of “wages” built around a rigid inclusion–exclusion formula that fundamentally alters how salaries must be structured. Only basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance qualify as “wages”, while all other components – including HRA, commissions, bonus, overtime, PF and ESI contributions, conveyance, special allowance and reimbursements – are treated as exclusions.

The Code then imposes a mandatory 50% cap on these exclusions. If the total of all allowances and excluded components exceeds 50% of the employee’s total remuneration, the excess must be added back into “wages”.

This mechanism prevents the long-standing practice of keeping basic pay low and allowances high and forces employers to recalibrate salary structures so that the core wage constitutes at least half of total pay. As allowances and variable components fluctuate month to month, the rule can trigger repeated wage recalculations, affecting PF, ESI, bonus and gratuity computation simultaneously. As this single definition applies across all four Codes, any error or misclassification creates multi-statute non-compliance risks, making the wage formula one of the most contentious and operationally complex parts of the new regime.

5. Heavy dependence on future rules and schemes

Several key provisions including those related to gig-worker benefits, safety norms, working-hour rules and welfare schemes depend on subordinate rules and schemes yet to be framed, delaying full implementation.

6. Single registration can dilute sector-specific oversight

The OSHWC Code’s single licence and unified registration system may reduce the granularity of inspections, making sector-specific violations harder to identify.

7. Work-from-home recognised, but unregulated

While acknowledged in the IR Code, there are no safeguards for working hours, cost sharing, ergonomics or data-security obligations, leaving wide discretion to employers.

8. Gig worker protections incomplete

The Social Security Code recognises gig and platform workers but leaves actual benefits contingent on future schemes and aggregator contributions, resulting in uncertainty about real protections.

9. Implementation burden during transition

Migrating from 29 repealed Acts to four Codes requires reclassification, new documentation, fresh registrations and changes to HR/payroll systems, increasing administrative load for both employers and inspectors.