Is the New Labour Code Implemented in Your State Yet?

All four new Labour Codes have been in force in every State since 21 November 2025, under commencement instruments that apply nationally. Each State also makes its own rules under the Codes for the establishments where it is the appropriate Government. It makes them on its own timetable, separately from the Central Rules of 8 May 2026 (G.S.R. 342(E) to 345(E)) and from every other State, so whether rules have been notified under the Codes is decided State by State.

Final rules are in force under all four Codes in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Ladakh, and under one to three Codes in six more States and Union Territories.

Arunachal Pradesh made its rules in 2021 and 2022, and Gujarat between 2021 and 2025, before the Codes commenced; those rules provide that they come into force with the Code, so they took effect on 21 November 2025 without a further notification.

The Central Rules bind an employer only where the Central Government is its appropriate Government, except on the matters each Code assigns to the Central Government for every sphere, which bind every employer whatever its appropriate Government.

In the other twenty-five States and Union Territories, every State rule published under the Codes is a draft. For an establishment in one of those twenty-five, the draft State rules impose no new duties; its duties are imposed by India's four Labour Codes themselves and by the rules saved under the Acts each Code repealed.

Gazette instruments for each State's final rules

Rules bind from the Gazette publication date, not the signing date

Rule 1 of most of the final State rules provides that they come into force "after the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette", so the date that governs commencement is the date of the Gazette issue, not the date on which the rules were signed:

• Bihar's rules under all four Codes were notified on 30 June 2026 and published on 1 July 2026, and they bind from 1 July.
• Ladakh's OSH rules, S.O. 238 of 30 July 2026, were published in the Gazette of 2 September 2026, five weeks later.
• Andhra Pradesh's OSH rules were signed on 6 August and published on 7 August 2026.
• Jammu and Kashmir's OSH rules, S.O. 224, were signed on 12 August 2026. Their rule 1 brings them into force on final publication in the Official Gazette, and that publication was unconfirmed as at 6 October 2026.

The word "final" in that clause distinguishes the final publication from the previous publication of the draft that the Code requires first; it does not make the document containing it a draft.

The Codes have been in force in Maharashtra since 21 November 2025, and no Maharashtra rules under them are in force, because the State's five notifications under the Codes are drafts. They were published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette, Extraordinary Part One-L, between 28 April and 5 May 2026 and cover all four Codes, and each invites objections and suggestions within forty-five days of publication. Every objection period has expired, and all five remain drafts:

• Code on Wages, 2019, Extraordinary No. 46, dated 28 April 2026, made under section 67 of that Code. Objections closed 12 June 2026.
• Industrial Relations Code, 2020, Extraordinary No. 47, dated 28 April 2026, made under section 99(1), and expressed to be in supersession of the Industrial Disputes (Maharashtra) Rules, 1957, the Maharashtra Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1959 and the Maharashtra Trade Unions Regulations, 1927. Objections closed 12 June 2026.
• OSH, the general draft, Extraordinary No. 49, dated 30 April 2026. Objections closed 14 June 2026.
• OSH, factories, Extraordinary No. 50, dated 5 May 2026, made under sections 133 and 135 and expressed in supersession of the rules under the Factories Act, 1948. Objections closed 19 June 2026.
• Code on Social Security, 2020, Extraordinary No. 53, dated 5 May 2026. Objections closed 19 June 2026.

An employer in Maharashtra therefore has no new register, return or form under the drafts. The supersession clauses name the instruments the drafts would replace: the Industrial Relations draft would replace the three instruments of 1927, 1957 and 1959, and the factories draft would replace the rules under the Factories Act, 1948, so those instruments currently govern the employer's filings.

The forty-five days allowed for objections is a statutory minimum for the Social Security draft and the two OSH drafts. The Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code fix no minimum, so for those two drafts the Maharashtra Labour Department chose the period, and the State may allow a shorter period for a later draft under either Code.

An employer's Maharashtra registrations and certified standing orders did not lapse on 21 November 2025, and they do not lapse when a draft is published. In Maharashtra the employer owes what it owed before, plus every duty the Codes themselves impose, which applies without new State rules.

The Codes have been in force in Tamil Nadu since 21 November 2025, because commencement was national: every section of every Code that took effect on that date took effect in Tamil Nadu. None of the State's own rules under the Codes is in force. The Tamil Nadu Labour Department published draft rules under the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code and the OSH Code on 11 April 2022, in Gazette Extraordinary No. 214, each allowing forty-five days for objections. Those objection periods expired in mid-2022, and no final rules have been notified. The Wages notification reads "the following draft rules, which the Government of Tamil Nadu proposes to make". No draft rules under the Code on Social Security have been published in Tamil Nadu.

For a 60-worker knitwear factory in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu is the appropriate Government under all four Codes. The OSH Code provides for this in two places: section 2(1)(d)(ii) names a factory, and an Explanation clarifies that occupational safety in a factory is a State matter. Section 135(3) of the OSH Code qualifies that, by letting the Central Government make uniformity rules on occupational safety in factories in consultation with the State. Until Tamil Nadu finalises its drafts, section 143(3) of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 continues the Tamil Nadu factories rules that were validly made under the Factories Act, 1948 in force, so far as they are not inconsistent with the Code, and section 69(2) of the Code on Wages continues the Tamil Nadu wages rules and the rate notification under them in the same way. The factory's registers, forms and safety-officer rules are the ones it already has.

No Karnataka rules under the Codes are in force, because Karnataka's rules under all four Codes are drafts, all four republished in January 2026. The Karnataka Labour Commissionerate issued them on 23 January 2026 for the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code and the OSH Code, and on 27 January 2026 for the Code on Social Security, each allowing forty-five days for objections. Those objection periods have expired, and no final rules have been notified.

The Wages notification, No. LD 157 LET 2020 (P-1), recites a draft of March 2021, records that the objections to it were considered, and then sets out a fresh draft rather than final rules.

Final Karnataka rules can prescribe only the matters left to the appropriate Government under each Code: forms, registers, returns, authorities, fees, and the figures each Code makes prescribable. They cannot fix a contribution rate, because section 16 and section 29(2) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 assign those to the Central Government, and they cannot change the Code's own sections.

A twelve-person branch in Bengaluru owes everything the Codes impose directly, everything the Central Government prescribes for every sphere, and, on the Karnataka forms it already uses, whatever the saved Karnataka rules require until Karnataka replaces them.

A State's rules under each Code are at one of four stages: draft, notified, effective or not notified. Whether the rules bind or are a draft appears from the notification's own text.

The opening words. A draft is identified as a draft in the covering notification rather than in the rules, by the invitation to object and the period allowed; Maharashtra's Wages draft contains both.

Rule 1. The date of the rules and their commencement are specified in separate sub-rules. The Central Rules of 8 May 2026 say they come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette, so publication and commencement coincide. A State's rules need not do that, and where rule 1 postpones commencement, a notified rule is still not an effective one.

The supersession clause. It names the instruments being replaced, and so identifies the instruments currently applicable, which remain the current rules until the draft is finalised.

What must happen before State rules bind an employer

Three steps are required for a State's proposal to become a binding rule: previous publication, a period for objections, and final publication in the Official Gazette. All four Codes impose the first, and only two of them, the Code on Social Security and the OSH Code, spell out the second and third.

Previous publication. Almost every rule-making power in the four Codes is conditional on it. The words appear in sections 67(1) and 67(3) of the Code on Wages, section 99(1) of the Industrial Relations Code, sections 154, 155 and 156 of the Code on Social Security, and sections 133, 134 and 135 of the OSH Code. In each of those the government may make rules "subject to the condition of previous publication", so a draft published in the State Gazette satisfies that condition. Two powers, both conferred on the Central Government, have no such condition, so rules under them can be made without a preceding draft: section 99(3) of the Industrial Relations Code and section 135(3) of the OSH Code. Rules made without previous publication, where the section requires it, are made without satisfying the section that authorises them.

A period in which objections can be made. Section 137(a) of the OSH Code fixes a minimum period: the date on which the draft may be taken into consideration "shall not be less than forty-five days" from the date it was published for general information. Section 158(a) of the Code on Social Security fixes the same minimum period in the same words. The Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code fix no period, and in each of those two the words "previous publication" appear only in the rule-making section itself. A forty-five-day period in a Social Security or OSH draft is therefore the statutory minimum; the same period in a Wages or Industrial Relations draft is that government's own choice.

Under the Code on Social Security, an objection period of less than forty-five days is shorter than the minimum under section 158(a), and under the OSH Code it is shorter than the minimum under section 137(a); in either case an employer can object on that ground alone. Under the Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code there is no specified minimum period, so employers should plan for a shorter objection period.

Final publication in the Official Gazette. Section 137(b) of the OSH Code provides that on final publication the rules "shall have effect as if enacted in this Code". Section 158(b) of the Code on Social Security provides the same for rules, regulations and schemes made under it. An inspector enforces a rule made under those sections in the same way as a section of the Code.

When final rules may be made without a preceding draft

The proviso to section 99(1) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 permits the appropriate Government, where it is satisfied that circumstances render it necessary or expedient in the public interest, to "dispense with the condition of previous publication or reduce the required time period for inviting objections or suggestions". Section 67 of the Code on Wages, sections 154 to 156 of the Code on Social Security and sections 133 to 135 of the OSH Code contain no such proviso. Three other exceptions to previous publication are available only to the Central Government. The proviso to section 158 of the Code on Social Security lets the Central Government dispense in an epidemic, pandemic or disaster. The opening words of that section except the Chapter III schemes from previous publication altogether. Section 138 of the OSH Code lets the Central Government make regulations under section 136 without previous publication where it is satisfied that apprehended danger or the speedy remedy of dangerous conditions makes delay unacceptable.

Final Industrial Relations rules may therefore be published without a preceding draft.

How the four Codes divide rule-making powers

Every Code gives the Central Government a rule-making power of its own: the Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code in a sub-section, the Code on Social Security in a separate section, and the OSH Code in a separate section and a sub-section.

Under every one of the four Codes, Central rules and State rules can be in force at the same time on different matters. Under the Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code, both governments have rule-making powers under sub-sections of section 67 and section 99, so the first sub-section of each does not contain the complete allocation.

Section 99(3) of the Industrial Relations Code requires the Central Government to prescribe, in two clauses, the manner of recognising a Central Trade Union at the Central level, the authority and manner of deciding a dispute about that recognition under section 27(1), and the manner of holding an enquiry under section 85(1). Section 85(1) is the appointment power, and it is confined to a closed list of penalties named in sections 86 and 89. Section 85(2) authorises the officer appointed under it to hold the enquiry and impose the penalty following it, and section 85(3) makes non-payment within ninety days punishable with a fine of not less than fifty thousand rupees and up to two lakh rupees. The appropriate Government appoints that officer; the Central Government prescribes the manner in which the enquiry is held. Section 67(3)(i) of the Code on Wages does the same for the enquiry under section 53(1) of that Code. Both procedures apply whatever a State does about its rules.

Four groups of duty are unaffected by whether a State has notified anything, because the Codes apply of their own force and the rules only provide the means of implementation: the Codes' own sections, the matters a Code assigns to the Centre for every sphere, what the savings clauses continue, and duties with fixed dates.

The Codes' own sections. Everything the four Codes themselves enact commenced on 21 November 2025 across India. The eight-hour day is in section 25(1)(a) of the OSH Code, subject to the sub-sections and exemption powers that displace it, and the appointment letter is in section 6(1)(f) of that same Code. The retrenchment conditions are in section 70 of the Industrial Relations Code. The gratuity entitlement is in section 53 of the Code on Social Security. A definition of wages appears in each of the four Codes. The procedures that supplement those sections do depend on which rules bind the employer: for hours, overtime and leave, the entitlement is in the Code and the record of it is in a rule.

The matters a Code assigns to the Centre for every sphere are Central Government matters, not State matters, whoever the employer's appropriate Government is:

• Registration under section 3 of the Code on Social Security is prescribed by the Central Government, for every sphere.
• Sections 3(3), 3(4) and 3(5) of the OSH Code assign the certificate of registration, the thirty-day change intimation and the closure procedure to the Central Government, whoever the employer's appropriate Government is.
• Sections 23 and 24 of the OSH Code, health, welfare and the crèche, are Central Government matters under section 134, so they are uniform nationally.
• Contribution rates are Central: section 16(1) of the Code on Social Security for provident fund, pension and deposit-linked insurance, given effect by notification, and section 29(2) for state insurance, under which rule 19 of the Social Security Central Rules fixes the ESI percentages. No State prescribes any of the PF and ESI rates.
• Chapter III and Chapter IV Inspectors-cum-Facilitators are appointed by the Central Government under section 122(1) of the Code on Social Security, whoever the appropriate Government is for the rest of that Code.
• The penalty enquiry under section 85(1) of the Industrial Relations Code is held in the manner the Central Government prescribes, under section 99(3)(b) of that Code. The enquiry under section 53(1) of the Code on Wages is held in the manner the Central Government prescribes under section 67(3)(i) of the Code on Wages.
• Uniformity in occupational safety and health in factories is a Central Government rule power under section 135(3) of the OSH Code, exercisable in consultation with the State Government.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment issued the Central Rules of 8 May 2026; apart from the matters prescribed for every sphere, they are Central-sphere rules. The Ministry issues no consolidated set of State rules, and each State's position is fixed by that State's own Gazette.

What the savings clauses continue. Where a State has notified nothing, saved provisions continue to apply. Each Code has its own savings provision, and the four are worded differently.

Read together, they deem what was validly done under the repealed Act to continue so far as it is not inconsistent with the Code that replaced it. Existing registrations, notifications, appointments, orders and schemes therefore continue. So do each State's minimum wage rates, which are fixed by a rate notification and not by Code rules.

Two savings clauses expressly address State notifications and exemptions. Section 164(2)(a) of the Code on Social Security saves, in its own words, "any rule, regulation, notification (including the notifications issued by the States), scheme, appointment, order or direction": State notifications under the nine repealed social security enactments are saved expressly rather than by implication. Section 164(2)(c) of the Code on Social Security continues any exemption granted under a repealed enactment until its validity expires, it ceases under the Code, or a direction is made, so an exemption a State granted to an employer does not cease merely because the Code commenced.

Duties with fixed dates. Three duties carry fixed dates whatever a State does. The three-month period in section 6(1)(f) of the OSH Code, to issue appointment letters to staff already on the payroll, closed on 21 February 2026. The six months given by section 30(1) of the Industrial Relations Code, for an employer to whom Chapter IV applies to prepare draft standing orders on the model standing orders and forward them for certification, closed on 21 May 2026; Chapter IV applies to an industrial establishment with three hundred or more workers, or one that employed three hundred on any day of the preceding twelve months. An employer's existing standing orders continue, and section 30(11) deems them certified under section 30(8) so far as they are consistent with the Code. Rule 3(6) of the OSH Central Rules gives an employer already registered under another Central labour law six months from 8 May 2026 to update its particulars in Form I, a period that ends on 8 November 2026 in the Central sphere.

An employer who ignores a duty in force because no State form exists is still in breach; the obligation applies from commencement and only the mechanism is missing.

Applicability is determined per establishment, and the government sphere is determined before the rule status.

1. The appropriate Government is fixed for each establishment, Code by Code. Under the Code on Social Security an establishment with departments or branches in more than one State is Central; under the other three it is usually the State where the establishment is located. Each Code's definition of appropriate Government is applied clause by clause.
2. The seven matters the Central Government prescribes for every sphere do not vary by State, so they belong on the one-time transition checklist rather than on a State watch list.
3. For the remaining matters, what applies depends on the stage of the State's rules under each Code: draft, notified, effective or not notified.
4. Where the State's rules are not notified, the saved rules apply, and the savings clause that continues them matters, because the four are worded differently and one of them has no repeal provision.

An employer with its head office in Pune and a branch in Bengaluru needs eight answers, one for each Code in each State. Both social security answers are Central, because the employer has branches in more than one State. Maharashtra's own drafts settle three more, because while they remain drafts the existing Maharashtra instruments continue to govern wages, industrial relations and OSH in Pune. The remaining three answers are the Karnataka wages, industrial relations and OSH rules, and each depends on the stage of Karnataka's rules under that Code.