Four Labour Codes brought into force on 21 November 2025

The Government made the Code on Wages 2019, the Industrial Relations Code 2020, the Code on Social Security 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 effective from 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 Central labour laws. Key employer obligations include mandatory appointment letters for all workers, a statutory right to minimum wages for all workers, free annual health check-ups for workers above 40, timely payment of wages, and social security coverage extended to gig and platform workers with aggregator contributions of 1-2% of annual turnover capped at 5% of amounts paid to those workers. ESIC coverage is extended pan-India, voluntary for establishments with fewer than 10 employees and mandatory where even one employee is engaged in a hazardous process. Fixed-term employees get benefits equal to permanent workers and gratuity eligibility after one year instead of five. Multiple registrations, licences and returns are replaced by single registration, a pan-India single licence and a single return.

In force, but not fully. The government release itself notes that certain provisions of some Codes were not brought into effect on that date. This is the single largest employer-facing compliance change in the period covered.

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