Code on Social Security 2020

On Tuesday, 7 July 2026, the HR head of the 220-person electrical equipment manufacturer in Pune sat in the conference room with three files in front of her. One file held the gratuity payment due to a senior production technician retiring on Friday 17 July at age sixty, on thirty completed years of continuous service, last drawn wages on basic plus dearness allowance of ₹40,000 a month. A second held the maternity benefit record of a press operator who had begun 26-week paid leave on Monday 12 January 2026 after a ₹3,500 medical bonus paid the same week, with her return-to-work date scheduled for Monday 13 July and two nursing breaks per working day on the schedule until October 2027 when her child would turn fifteen months. A third held the employees' compensation claim file for a senior production supervisor on monthly wages of ₹38,000 (above the ₹21,000 ESI wage ceiling and so outside Chapter IV), who had slipped on the press shop's mezzanine ladder on Monday 18 May 2026, had fractured his right wrist, and had returned to limited duty on 6 July after seven weeks off work.

The Pune manufacturer's 220 employees on payroll cleared the 20-employee threshold for provident fund coverage under Chapter III of the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the 10-person threshold for employees' state insurance under Chapter IV, both running off the broader "employee" count from the distinction in Employee vs Worker: Labour Codes. The 78 employees aged 45 and above from the annual health check-up cohort in OSH Code 2020 Compliance Guide sat inside the Section 6(1)(c) duty under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and the same 78 carried gratuity provisioning that had been ticking up cadre-by-cadre through the working years. Of the 220, the number above the ₹21,000 monthly ESI wage ceiling was eight: four senior production supervisors, three engineers, and the HR head herself, all outside Chapter IV's coverage and so within Chapter VII (Employees' Compensation) for any workplace injury. None of the 220 was a fixed-term worker on a contract of less than one year for the immediate gratuity-eligibility check; the fifteen inter-state migrant workers from Howrah engaged on three-month operator contracts would not cross the one-year qualifying clock, and the FY 2026-27 product-redesign engineers brought in on twelve-month written contracts would.

A retirement, a return from maternity, and an injury claim, all on the same conference-room table on a single morning, all under the same Code, each running on its own clock. Gratuity under Section 53 of the Code on Social Security ran on the 15-days-per-completed-year formula with payment due within thirty days of becoming payable under Section 56(3); the technician's gratuity calculation came to ₹6,92,308 against the ceiling of ₹20 lakh, payable on or before 16 August. Maternity benefit under Section 60 had run for 26 weeks of paid leave on the average daily wage of three calendar months preceding the period of absence, with the medical bonus already paid and the nursing breaks under Section 66 scheduled into the working calendar through October 2027. Employees' compensation under Section 74 ran on the schedule prescribed in the Fourth Schedule for temporary partial disablement, with the supervisor's wage loss for seven weeks computed and the medical-expense reimbursement reconciled against the company's Group Personal Accident policy.

The Wage Code covered in Code on Wages 2019 Guide was paid in arithmetic and audited in registers. The IR Code covered in Industrial Relations Code 2020 Guide was paid in clocks. The OSH Code covered in OSH Code 2020 Compliance Guide was paid in conditions, and the conditions are read on the floor. The Code on Social Security is paid in benefits, and the benefits span a working life.

In force from 21 November 2025 by Gazette Notification S.O. 5319(E), the SS Code consolidates nine older Acts into one instrument, of which eight have been operatively repealed and one (the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952) has not. Item 3 of Section 164(1) of the SS Code, which lists the EPF Act, 1952 for repeal, was expressly excluded from the 21 November 2025 commencement; Section 164(2)(b) saves four instruments — the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995, the Employees Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, and the Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1997 — for one year from commencement, that is until 21 November 2026 (defensibly so for the EPF Scheme 1952 and the EDLI Scheme 1976), or until corresponding schemes are notified under the Code, whichever is earlier. A corrigendum S.O. 5936(E) dated 19 December 2025, with retrospective effect to 21 November 2025, harmonised the EPF-related sequencing under the Code with the earlier S.O. 2060(E) of 3 May 2023. Draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2025 were re-published in the Gazette on 30 December 2025 under G.S.R. 935(E); the 45-day public-comment window closed on 13 February 2026, and final Rules had not been gazetted as of 25 April 2026. Most of the Code's substantive duties sit in the live-and-self-executing first layer of the three-layer rollout, with the Chapter III provident fund architecture continuing under saved EPF Scheme notifications, and two material items in the held-back layer: item 3 of Section 164(1) (the EPF Act 1952 repeal entry) and Section 114(5) (the rate within the 1% to 2% band for aggregator contributions and the commencement date for those contributions, both pending Central Government notification). The SS Code carries more held-back content than the other three Codes combined.

This reference holds the article's body sections, each taken into operation below in the order in which the Code's chapter map sits on a working establishment.

The SS Code is the only one of the four Codes whose applicability runs chapter by chapter rather than at the establishment as a whole. A factory, a mine, a shop, or any other establishment may be covered under some chapters and not others. A multi-state professional services firm with 80 employees across four offices is covered under Chapter III for PF (because each office crosses 20 employees, and Section 2(3) of the Code carries the multi-state branch rule), under Chapter IV for ESI (10-person threshold cleared at every office), under Chapter V for gratuity for any office with 10 or more employees, under Chapter VI for maternity benefit on the same shop trigger, under Chapter VII for employees' compensation only for any employee outside Chapter IV's reach, under Chapter VIII not at all (no construction activity), under Chapter IX not at all (not an aggregator), and under Chapter XIII only on a specific government notification. The SS Code's footprint at any given establishment is the union of the chapters that apply, computed chapter by chapter against the establishment's facts.

For the Pune manufacturer, the chapter map runs as follows. Provident fund coverage under Chapter III applies, the establishment having cleared the 20-employee threshold years before the Code commenced. Chapter IV's ESI applies on the same older-Act register, the 10-person threshold cleared with individual coverage limited to employees earning within the ₹21,000 per month ceiling (212 of the 220 employees on payroll). Gratuity under Chapter V applies, the establishment being a factory under Section 2(w) of the OSH Code regardless of the shop-level 10-employee qualifier. Maternity benefit under Chapter VI applies on the same factory-level trigger, with the crèche obligation under Section 67 attaching at the 50-or-more-employees count. The eight employees outside Chapter IV's reach sit within Chapter VII for any workplace injury or death claim. BOCW welfare cess under Chapter VIII does not apply, the establishment carrying on factory operations rather than building or other construction work; it would attach to a future plant expansion that engaged 10 or more construction workers and had a notified-scale construction cost, but no such project sat on the books for FY 2026-27. The aggregator framework of Chapter IX does not apply, the establishment not falling within any of the nine aggregator categories of the Seventh Schedule. Vacancy notification under Chapter XIII sits dormant, the appropriate Government for Maharashtra factories not having issued a Section 139(1) reporting direction.

Chapter III of the SS Code (Sections 14 to 23) applies to every establishment with 20 or more employees. The older requirement that EPF coverage was limited to scheduled employments has been removed; coverage now runs at the broad 20-employee threshold for any establishment under the First Schedule read with Section 1(4). Three schemes sit under PF, each notified separately by the Central Government: the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme (provident fund for employees), the Employees' Pension Scheme (superannuation, retiring, and permanent total disablement pensions), and the Employees Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme (life insurance benefits linked to the PF balance).

Section 16(1)(a) of the SS Code sets the statutory baseline employer contribution rate at ten per cent of the employee's wages. The first proviso to Section 16(1) authorises the Central Government to notify a different rate, and at twelve per cent specifically, for classes of establishments. Employee contribution rates and the period for which they apply are addressed by the second proviso, again on a Central notification. As of April 2026, the Central Government has not issued a fresh contribution rate notification under Section 16. Paragraph 29 of the saved Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 fixes employer contribution at twelve per cent for scheduled industries, and Section 164(2)(b) of the SS Code saves the Scheme for one year from commencement, that is until 21 November 2026, or until corresponding schemes are notified under the Code, whichever is earlier. Twelve per cent continues to apply in operation for the vast majority of covered establishments, with the statutory baseline of ten per cent overridden by the saved twelve per cent rate. Ten per cent applies as a narrow legacy rate to sick units, units below 20 employees, and specified coir, jute, beedi, brick, and guar gum industries, under the 1997 EPFO notification.

The wages base on which PF is computed is the uniform wages definition from the Wage Code, mirrored at Section 2(88) of the SS Code. The 50% rule cascades into PF accordingly: the senior production engineer's recomputed monthly wages of ₹35,000, in place of the older base of ₹25,000, lifted employer PF on his account from ₹3,000 to ₹4,200 per month and the employee's matching share by the same ₹1,200. The annual lift on his account ran at ₹14,400 each on the employer and employee sides, with the entire combined uplift sitting in the PF account rather than in the bank account.

A held-back item sits beneath the operating PF architecture. Item 3 of Section 164(1) of the SS Code, which lists the EPF Act, 1952 for repeal, was expressly excluded from S.O. 5319(E)'s commencement. The EPF Act, 1952 has not been operatively repealed despite being listed for repeal in the Code, and the existing EPFO contribution architecture continues unchanged through this transitional period. Universal Account Number (UAN) architecture continues under the saved EPF Scheme; new hires register through the EPFO portal; monthly returns and challans run on the same older-Act forms; the 15th-of-the-succeeding-month deadline under paragraph 38(1) of the EPF Scheme 1952 (with no grace period after the EPFO Circular of 8 January 2016) governs the deposit. For the Pune manufacturer, June's PF deposit, against the FY 2026-27 recomputed wage bases for the 60 cadres carrying the 50% rule recomputation, ran on the saved Scheme's forms and against the saved Scheme's deadlines on 12 July 2026, three days inside the 15 July 2026 cut-off.

The transitional window for the EPF Act, 1952 closes on 20 November 2026 unless the Centre extends it. Substantive PF duty under Section 16 of the Code is in force from 21 November 2025, with the operating machinery sitting on the older Act through the transitional year. A subsequent commencement notification of item 3 of Section 164(1), or an extension of the saving clause, will determine when the Code's PF architecture takes over from the older Act's. Track the position through the year on the Ministry of Labour and Employment's notification pages.

Chapter IV of the SS Code applies to every establishment with 10 or more persons (Section 1(4) read with item IV of the First Schedule). Hazardous or life-threatening establishments notified by the Central Government are covered with a single employee. Mines, ports, and any work carried on in the vicinity of a port are covered. Plantations are not covered automatically; an employer may opt into ESI under Section 1(7) by agreement, where the benefits are better than what is being provided.

Section 29(1) of the Code provides that ESI contribution comprises an employer's contribution and an employee's contribution at rates prescribed by the Central Government under Section 29(2). The employer remits both shares to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation under Section 31(1), in respect of every covered employee, whether directly employed or engaged through a contractor. Recovery of the employee's share from the wages payable for that wage period sits in Section 31(2). The dual-contribution architecture from the older Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 carries forward; the SS Code does not shift the employee's share onto the employer economically. The 15th-of-the-succeeding-month deposit deadline runs under regulation 31 of the Employees' State Insurance (General) Regulations, 1950, preserved through Section 29 read with Section 157 of the SS Code.

Individual coverage under Chapter IV is limited to employees whose monthly wages fall within the ESI wage ceiling notified by the Central Government. The operative ceiling continues under the saved older-Act notification at ₹21,000 per month (or ₹25,000 for persons with disability), pending fresh notification under the Code. Of the Pune manufacturer's 220 employees, 212 sit within the ceiling and are ESI-covered; the 8 above the ceiling sit outside Chapter IV and within Chapter VII for any workplace injury claim. The senior production supervisor whose injury opened this article sat in the latter group. His monthly wages of ₹38,000 took him outside ESI; his employer carried the medical, wage-loss, and any disablement liability under Chapter VII directly.

Two definitional widenings under the SS Code expand the dependants who can access ESI benefits. Section 2(33) brings dependent parents, including a father-in-law and a mother-in-law, within the family of a female employee, where their income from all sources does not exceed the limit prescribed by the Central Government. Section 2(24) widens "dependant" to include, among others, a widower (sub-clause (c)(i)) and a grandparent if no parent of the employee is alive (sub-clause (c)(viii)). The wider family definition for women employees is among the SS Code's underrecognised improvements; HR systems that capture only the older 1948 Act's narrower family definition under-allocate dependant access on the books. Update the employee-master data to reflect the expanded family definitions, so benefits flow to the right dependants on every claim.

A Section 34(3) provision deems an accident occurring while travelling between the place of residence and the workplace, and back, to arise out of and in the course of employment, where a nexus between the circumstances, time and place of the accident and the employment can be established. The commute-deeming provision sits under ESI for ESI-covered employees and is mirrored at Section 74(4) for employees' compensation in Chapter VII.

Chapter V of the SS Code applies to every factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port, and railway company, and to every shop or establishment with 10 or more employees on any day in the preceding 12 months. Eligibility for gratuity varies by trigger event: superannuation, retirement, or resignation requires five years of continuous service for permanent employees and one year of contractual service for fixed-term employees, the latter on Section 53(1)(d) read with the second proviso to Section 53(1) and the third proviso to Section 53(2). Death and disablement, by accident or by disease, require no minimum service. Working journalists carry a three-year qualifying period under the first proviso to Section 53(1).

Gratuity is paid at fifteen days' wages for each completed year of service under Section 53(2), with daily wages computed as monthly wages divided by twenty-six under Explanation 3 to Section 53(2). The wages base is the uniform Wage Code definition mirrored at Section 2(88), so the 50% rule cascades into gratuity directly. Maximum gratuity payable to a private-sector employee remains at ₹20 lakh as of April 2026, the limit running under the older Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 notification and continuing under Section 53(2)'s reference to a Central Government-notified limit. A ₹25 lakh figure that circulates in some commentary applies only to Central Civil Service employees under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules and has not been notified for the private sector under the SS Code.

A worked example runs the senior production technician retiring on 17 July 2026 from the Pune manufacturer's press shop. Last drawn wages on basic plus dearness allowance are ₹40,000 per month. Daily wages are ₹40,000 ÷ 26 = ₹1,538.46. Gratuity per completed year is 15 × ₹1,538.46 = ₹23,077. Thirty completed years of continuous service give a gratuity payable of ₹23,077 × 30 = ₹6,92,308, well below the ₹20 lakh ceiling. Payment is due within thirty days of the gratuity becoming payable under Section 56(3); for a 17 July retirement, the payment runs by 16 August 2026 at the latest, with simple interest accruing on any delay beyond that date under Section 56(4) at the rate notified by the Central Government, unless the delay is attributable to the employee and the employer has obtained written permission for the delay from the competent authority. Both conditions, employee-fault and written permission, must be satisfied before interest is excused.

A second worked example runs the senior production engineer from The 50% Wage Rule. Six completed years on the rolls, last drawn wages on the recomputed base of ₹35,000 (the 50% rule lifted his wages number from ₹25,000 to ₹35,000). Daily wages on the recomputed base are ₹35,000 ÷ 26 = ₹1,346.15. Gratuity per completed year is 15 × ₹1,346.15 = ₹20,192. Six completed years bring his accrued gratuity provision to ₹1,21,154. Under the older base of ₹25,000, the same accrual would have stood at ₹86,538; the 50% rule recomputation lifts six years of gratuity provisioning by ₹34,615 on his account alone, as a continuing liability the company books each year against the accrual schedule.

A third worked example runs the FY 2026-27 product-redesign engineer brought in on a twelve-month written contract, fixed-term under Section 2(o) of the IR Code. Last drawn wages are ₹26,000 per month. Daily wages are ₹26,000 ÷ 26 = ₹1,000. Gratuity per completed year is 15 × ₹1,000 = ₹15,000. The contract ends after one completed year, and the gratuity is paid pro-rata at ₹15,000 under Section 53(1)(d) read with the third proviso to Section 53(2). Termination on contract expiry of a fixed-term worker does not trigger retrenchment compensation under Section 70(b) of the IR Code, on the Section 2(zh)(iv) carve-out from "retrenchment", but the pro-rata gratuity is statutory and is paid on the same payment-deadline framework as for permanent employees. Industrial Relations Code 2020 Guide covers the IR Code's Section 2(o) framework on the wages, allowances, and benefits side; this article's gratuity calculation runs the SS Code's pro-rata rule.

The bare statute does not prescribe a one-year minimum for fixed-term gratuity; it prescribes pro-rata payment on termination of the contract period. Any one-year-style eligibility floor is a creature of the Central Rules, where notified, and not of the Code text itself. Section 2(o)(c) of the IR Code separately provides that a fixed-term worker is eligible for gratuity if the worker renders service under the contract for one year, which carries the IR Code's contractual-eligibility framing into alignment with the SS Code's pro-rata payment mechanic for the standard one-year case.

Nomination is required under Section 55 for every employee with one year's service, in the form prescribed by the still-draft Central Rules. Until the final Central Rules notify, the nomination form under the older Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (Form F) continues by saving clause; update the form numbering once the Central Rules go live.

Chapter VI of the SS Code applies to every factory, mine, plantation, and to every shop or establishment with 10 or more employees on any day in the preceding 12 months. Individual eligibility runs on a single threshold: a woman employee qualifies for maternity benefit under Section 60(2) if she has worked at least 80 days with the employer in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of expected delivery.

Section 60(3) provides for paid leave of 26 weeks of which not more than 8 weeks may precede the expected delivery date. The proviso to Section 60(3) reduces the entitlement to 12 weeks (with not more than 6 weeks pre-delivery) where the woman employee already has two or more surviving children. The 26-week entitlement carried forward from the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 sits without a wages cap; the benefit is paid on the average daily wage drawn over the three calendar months preceding the period of absence, and the Wage Code definition feeds into the average-daily-wage computation through Section 2(88).

Section 60(4) provides for 12 weeks of maternity benefit for an adoptive mother who legally adopts a child, or for a commissioning mother, from the date the child is handed over. The original Section 60(4) carried a restriction that the adopted child be below the age of three months for the entitlement to apply, a holdover from the older Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 read with the 2017 amendment. The Supreme Court read the restriction down on 17 March 2026 in Hamsaanandini Nanduri v. Union of India, 2026 INSC 246, on a writ petition (Civil) No. 960 of 2021 by a Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan. The Court held that the classification violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, observed that the legislative purpose was the process of motherhood and not the process of childbirth, and excised the words "below the age of three months" from Section 60(4). After 17 March 2026, the 12-week entitlement applies to every legally adoptive mother and every commissioning mother regardless of the child's age at handover.

The press operator returning to work on 13 July 2026 had taken her 26-week leave under Section 60(3) starting on 12 January 2026, with her medical bonus of ₹3,500 paid in the same week. Her two daily nursing breaks under Section 66 were scheduled into her shift cadence from 13 July through October 2027, on the production-shift roster the works manager carried. The Section 67 crèche, in place at the establishment since the older Maternity Benefit Act regime, sat ready for any child below six years of any of the manufacturer's woman employees, on the contracted-out arrangement with a registered crèche operator across the road from the factory entrance. Section 67's crèche obligation attaches at "fifty or more employees" on the parent Section's gender-neutral text, with Rule 39 of the still-draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2025 referencing "fifty women employees" and creating a Code-vs-Rule drafting inconsistency to watch through the rule-finalisation process. Until corrigendum, employers plan around the lower of the two thresholds, that is the parent Section's gender-neutral text.

A drafting nuance bears on the crèche threshold across the OSH Code and the SS Code. The OSH Code's Section 24(3) reads "more than fifty workers ordinarily employed" with the crèche provided for children below six years of the establishment's employees. The SS Code's Section 67 reads "fifty or more employees." At exactly fifty, the SS Code's gender-neutral parent Section triggers but the OSH Code's "more than fifty workers" does not; below 50, neither triggers; above 50, both trigger. For most establishments the off-by-one distinction does not bite; it surfaces on a worker-heavy or employee-heavy unit at exactly 50. Run the count under both Codes in parallel on every threshold review.

Two protections run on the maternity benefit chapter. Section 68 makes it unlawful for an employer to dismiss or discharge a woman employee who absents herself from work in accordance with the maternity provisions of the Code. Section 69 prohibits the deduction of wages from a woman employee on maternity leave, with the period reckoned as service for all purposes. Maternity absence is a protected absence, not a performance or discipline trigger.

Chapter VII of the SS Code applies to employers and employees to whom Chapter IV (ESI) does not apply. The Pune manufacturer's eight employees outside the ₹21,000 ESI wage ceiling, including the four senior production supervisors, three engineers, and the HR head, sit within Chapter VII for any workplace injury or death claim. The senior production supervisor's slip on the press shop's mezzanine ladder on 18 May 2026 ran through Chapter VII rather than ESI, and the seven-week wage loss, the medical-expense reimbursement, and the temporary partial disablement compensation all attached on the employer directly under Section 74.

Section 74(1) carries the primary liability rule: where personal injury is caused to an employee by an accident arising out of and in the course of employment, the employer is liable to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VII. Section 74(4) expands the in-the-course-of-employment test to cover an accident while travelling between the place of residence and the workplace, and back, where the nexus between the circumstances, time and place of the accident and the employment can be established. The commute-deeming provision is the primary expansion under the SS Code over the older Employees' Compensation Act, 1923, and it lifts the threshold an employer must clear to dispute a commute-related claim.

Two sets of exceptions sit on the employer's liability under the proviso to Section 74(1). Clause (a) carves out a minor injury that does not result in total or partial disablement of the worker for a period exceeding three days; the clause operates independently of the misconduct grounds in clause (b) and is not subject to the death-or-PTD carve-out. Clause (b) provides that the employer is not liable, except in respect of an accident resulting in death or permanent total disablement, where the accident is directly attributable to one of three misconduct grounds: the worker being under the influence of drink or drugs at the time of the accident; wilful disobedience of an order expressly given, or a rule expressly framed, for the purpose of securing the worker's safety; and wilful removal or disregard of any safety guard or safety device that the worker knew had been provided to secure his safety. Where an accident on any of those three grounds results in death or permanent total disablement, the employer loses the defence and remains liable.

Section 81 of the Code provides a protection mechanism for the worker's family. Where an employee dies in the accident, or where the dependants are persons under a legal disability such as minors, the employer deposits the compensation amount with the competent authority rather than paying directly. The authority then invests or disburses to the rightful dependants on the prescribed mechanism. Section 82 prescribes the time limit for filing claims with the competent authority, with the older Act's two-year window carrying forward: no claim is entertained unless preferred within two years of the occurrence of the accident or, in case of death, within two years from the date of death.

Compensation amounts under Chapter VII are computed under Section 76 (Amount of compensation) read with the Sixth Schedule, drawn forward from the older Employees' Compensation Act, 1923. The Fourth Schedule supplies the degree of disablement: Part I lists injuries deemed to result in permanent total disablement, and Part II lists injuries with the percentage loss of earning capacity for permanent partial disablement. The Sixth Schedule supplies the lump-sum factors for working out compensation in the case of permanent disablement and death. The compensation amount runs on the wages of the injured employee, the age-factor multiplier from the Sixth Schedule, and the nature of the injury (death, permanent total disablement, permanent partial disablement, temporary disablement), with monthly wages computed under Section 78 (Method of calculating monthly wages for purposes of compensation). For the senior production supervisor's temporary partial disablement of seven weeks, the wages-of-disablement element of the compensation calculation ran on half-monthly wages drawn over the disablement period. The medical-expense reimbursement was paid against itemised receipts from the empanelled hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad as a contractual benefit; Chapter VII does not carry a dedicated medical-reimbursement provision for non-ESI employees (Section 84 deals with medical examination, and the cash medical benefit under Chapter IV is available only to ESI-insured persons), and the combined liability sat within the company's Group Personal Accident policy coverage and was reconciled against the policy claim by mid-July.

Chapter VIII of the SS Code carries the cess framework that funds social security and welfare schemes for building and other construction workers. The Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996 (Act 28 of 1996) was subsumed under Chapter VIII and stands operatively repealed effective 21 November 2025 as item 8 of the nine Acts repealed by Section 164(1) of the SS Code, with its substantive content now in Sections 100 to 108. The companion Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 was repealed by the OSH Code, 2020 and is not part of the SS Code's coverage.

Section 2(6) of the SS Code defines "building or other construction work" with three significant carve-outs. Construction related to a factory or a mine is not covered. Work employing fewer than 10 workers in the preceding 12 months is not covered. Construction for the personal residential use of an individual or a group, where the total cost is ₹50 lakh or less (or such higher amount as notified) and the worker count is within the notified limit, is not covered. All other building or other construction work falls within Chapter VIII.

Worker registration with the State Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board, constituted under Section 7 of the SS Code, is the gateway to cess-funded welfare schemes. Registered workers become eligible for the medical benefit, the maternity benefit (where the construction worker is also a woman in the construction trade), the educational assistance for children, the pension on superannuation, and the disablement and death benefits notified by the State Board. The Pune manufacturer carried no construction project on its books for FY 2026-27; an upcoming plant expansion engaged 14 construction workers in mid-2027 on a notified-scale construction cost would attract Chapter VIII obligations on the construction site.

Chapter IX of the SS Code is the most visible new idea in the Code. For the first time in Indian law, gig workers and platform workers sit within the social security framework, alongside unorganised workers who carry forward from the older Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008. The chapter's operational core sits in Sections 109 to 114, with Section 109 framing the schemes the Central and State Governments may notify for unorganised workers, Section 113 framing the registration of unorganised, gig, and platform workers, and Section 114 framing the architecture for gig- and platform-specific schemes funded by aggregator contributions. Section 141 establishes the Social Security Fund into which aggregator contributions flow.

Four definitions sit at the centre of the chapter. An unorganised worker under Section 2(86) is a home-based worker, a self-employed worker, or a wage worker in the unorganised sector, including a worker in the organised sector who is not covered by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or by Chapters III to VII of the SS Code. A gig worker under Section 2(35) is a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship. A platform worker under Sections 2(60) and 2(61) is a person engaged on or performing platform work through an online platform, typically as an independent contractor. An aggregator under Section 2(2) is a digital intermediary or marketplace for a buyer or user of a service to connect with the seller or service provider.

Section 114(4) sets out the aggregator contribution rule. Every aggregator contributes to the Social Security Fund at a rate not exceeding 2% and not less than 1% of the annual turnover of the aggregator, as notified by the Central Government. The Explanation to Section 114(4) excludes any tax, levy, or cess from the annual turnover figure. A proviso to Section 114(4) caps the contribution at 5% of the total amount paid or payable by the aggregator to gig and platform workers in the same financial year. In practice, the 5% cap binds for most aggregators whose payments to gig and platform workers run materially below the implied 1% to 2% of turnover.

Nine aggregator categories sit in the Seventh Schedule to the Code, captioned "Classification of Aggregators [See section 114(4)]": ride-sharing services; food and grocery delivery services; logistic services; e-marketplace, in marketplace and inventory model, for wholesale or retail sale of goods or services in B2B or B2C arrangements; professional services provider; healthcare; travel and hospitality; content and media services; and a catch-all ninth category covering any other goods and services provider platform.

The held-back items in Chapter IX are the rate within the band and the commencement date for aggregator contributions, both reserved to Central notification under Section 114(5). As of 25 April 2026, no aggregator was currently liable to remit a Central contribution; the commencement notification had not issued, the rate within the band had not been fixed, the return formats had not been prescribed, and the payment gateway had not been notified. Aggregators that nonetheless plan to absorb the rule cleanly when the machinery goes live model the liability now at the upper bound of the band, that is at 2% of annual turnover or 5% of payments to gig and platform workers (whichever is lower), and recognise a provision on the books from FY 2026-27 forward. Labour Code Implementation Plan carries the held-back-layer provisioning approach in detail.

State-level activity has run alongside the Centre's pending notifications. Karnataka enacted the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025 (Karnataka Act No. 72 of 2025), assented on 11 September 2025 and deemed in force from 30 May 2025, carrying a statutory commission-based welfare fee in the 1% to 5% per-transaction band; the administratively notified operational rate sits in the 1% to 1.5% range, with per-transaction caps of 50 paise, 75 paise, and Re 1 by business model. The Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers Welfare Board was constituted on 27 January 2026, with other states exploring parallel state legislation. Section 18(5) of the Karnataka Act provides that the State welfare fee counts toward the contribution payable under Section 114(4) of the SS Code, with annual reconciliation; the Centre's Social Security Fund mechanic under Section 141 and the State-level welfare board mechanic under Karnataka's 2025 Act are therefore interlocked rather than mutually exclusive, but a national aggregator operating across multiple states will eventually run two parallel registers, one for the Central Section 114(4) contribution and one for each State-level fee where notified.

Section 114(2) lets the Central Government formulate suitable schemes for gig workers and platform workers covering life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old-age protection, crèche, and any other benefit the Central Government may determine. Section 114(3) prescribes that the schemes may be funded wholly by the Central Government, wholly by the State Government, partly by both, or partly through Section 114(4) aggregator contributions. As of 25 April 2026, no scheme under Section 109 or Section 114 had been notified by the Central Government, and the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan and similar older-Act schemes for unorganised workers carried forward by saving clauses through the transitional period.

Chapter XIII of the SS Code carries a vacancy-notification framework that runs separately from the substantive social security chapters. Section 139(1) provides that the appropriate Government may, by notification, require employers in establishments of prescribed size to report vacancies before filling them, in the manner the appropriate Government prescribes (electronically or otherwise). Section 139(3) is express on a point that often gets lost in practitioner conversations: nothing in sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 139 imposes any obligation on the employer to recruit any person through the career centre to fill any vacancy merely because the vacancy has been reported. The reporting obligation is purely informational; the hiring decision sits with the employer.

The Pune manufacturer sat outside any current Section 139(1) notification by the Maharashtra Government as of April 2026; the Section 139 reporting clock would attach only on a notification that named the establishment's class. On the company's compliance file sat a single-page note tracking the position: if a notification issued, the hiring workflow would be updated to include a vacancy-reporting step before filling, without any change to the substantive recruitment process or the selection authority.

The SS Code is in force from 21 November 2025 by Gazette Notification S.O. 5319(E), with the corrigendum S.O. 5936(E) of 19 December 2025 (retrospective to 21 November 2025) harmonising the EPF-related sequencing under the Code with the earlier S.O. 2060(E) of 3 May 2023. Sections 1 to 14, parts of 15 and 16, sections 17 to 141, 143, 144 to 163, and items 1, 2 and 4 to 9 of Section 164(1) were notified into force on 21 November 2025. Item 3 of Section 164(1) (the EPF Act, 1952 repeal entry) was expressly excluded. Section 142 (the Aadhaar provision) had been brought into force earlier on 3 May 2021.

Draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2025 were re-published in the Gazette on 30 December 2025 under G.S.R. 935(E); the 45-day public-comment window closed on 13 February 2026, and final Rules had not been gazetted as of 25 April 2026. State Rules across major States are mixed: Delhi has notified the Delhi Code on Social Security Rules, 2025 dated 1 August 2025; Gujarat has notified final rules (Gujarat Code on Social Security Rules, 2023, with amendment rules); Karnataka and Maharashtra have published draft rules; and Kerala and several other States are at various stages of preparation, with public drafts not confirmed in all cases. The Ministry of Labour and Employment's Additional FAQs of 16 March 2026 carry the current authoritative interpretive position, directing employers to apply saved older-Act notifications and the still-draft Central Rules until final Rules notify under the Code itself.

Two material items sit in the held-back layer of the rollout. Item 3 of Section 164(1) of the SS Code (the EPF Act, 1952 repeal entry) is the largest single held-back item across the four Codes by financial scope; the EPF Act, 1952, the EPF Scheme 1952, the EPS 1995, and the EDLI Scheme 1976 continue to operate alongside Chapter III of the SS Code, with Section 164(2)(b) saving the Schemes for one year from commencement, that is until 21 November 2026, or until corresponding schemes are notified under the Code, whichever is earlier. Section 114(5) reserves the date of commencement of aggregator contributions and the rate within the 1% to 2% band to a Central Government notification, neither of which has issued as of 25 April 2026; no aggregator is currently liable to remit a Central contribution. Three further items are provisional pending the final Central Rules: the gratuity nomination form numbering, the BOCW cess interest rate (the legacy 1% per month carries forward), and the crèche specifications under Section 67 (the Code-vs-Rule drafting inconsistency on "fifty employees" vs "fifty women employees" sits in the rule-finalisation pipeline).

The contrast with the OSH Code covered in OSH Code 2020 Compliance Guide is sharp. Almost every duty in the OSH Code sat in the live-and-self-executing first layer of the rollout; the SS Code carries substantial held-back content in its largest two financial chapters (Chapter III on PF and Chapter IX on aggregator contributions). The SS Code's three-layer placement demands more active provisioning on the books than the OSH Code's, and a more careful watch on the Central Government's notification cadence through FY 2026-27.

Five mistakes recur in compliance reviews of mid-sized payrolls and benefit ledgers under the SS Code.

Applying one threshold across all nine chapters of the Code is the first. PF kicks in at 20 employees under Chapter III; ESI kicks in at 10 persons under Chapter IV; gratuity applies at 10 employees in shops and always in factories, mines, oilfields, plantations, ports, and railways under Chapter V; maternity benefit has a 10-employee trigger for shops under Chapter VI; employees' compensation covers establishments to which Chapter IV does not apply; BOCW cess attaches to construction work above the notified scale; aggregator contributions run on turnover, not headcount. A single headcount check is not enough to map the establishment's footprint under the SS Code. Run the establishment against every chapter on every threshold review, and document the chapter-applicability conclusion alongside the headcount conclusion.

Ignoring the 50% rule cascade into gratuity is the second. Most payroll systems update the PF base automatically on the recomputation but leave the gratuity provisioning ledger on the older base, because the gratuity ledger sits with finance rather than HR. Recomputed wages from the 50% rule flow through the 15-days-per-completed-year gratuity calculation under Section 53(2) in the same way they flow through PF; the cadre whose wages rose from ₹25,000 to ₹35,000 carries a 40% higher gratuity liability per completed year. Reconcile the gratuity provisioning ledger against the recomputed wage bases for each cadre at every annual salary review.

Treating the fixed-term gratuity rule as an option is the third. The one-year qualifying period for fixed-term employees with pro-rata payment is a statutory entitlement under the third proviso to Section 53(2), not an employer discretion. Fixed-term contracts that silently carry forward the older Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972's five-year continuous-service requirement to fixed-term workers are non-compliant; the Code's pro-rata mechanic applies on contract expiry once the worker has completed contractual service. Update fixed-term contract templates and the payroll engine's gratuity computation rule to reflect Section 53(1)(d) and the third proviso to Section 53(2).

Missing the expanded ESI family definition for women employees is the fourth. The Section 2(33) inclusion of dependent parents (including father-in-law and mother-in-law) within the family of a female employee, where their income is within the prescribed limit, broadens the dependant pool that can access ESI benefits through the insured woman. The Section 2(24) expansion of "dependant" to include a widower and a grandparent if no parent is alive does the same on the dependant's-benefit side. Update the employee-master data fields to capture the expanded family and dependant definitions; benefits flow to the right dependants only where the data captures the right relationships.

Treating aggregator contributions as a future problem is the fifth. The Section 114(4) liability framework is in force from 21 November 2025; the held-back items are the rate within the band and the commencement date under Section 114(5). Aggregators that wait for the commencement notification before any provisioning runs into a one-shot catch-up to the P&L the quarter the notification issues. Recognise a provision on the books at the upper bound of the 1% to 2% band (or at the 5% cap on payments to gig and platform workers, whichever is lower), accrue from FY 2026-27 forward, and pay against the accumulated provision when the collection mechanics go live. The same approach applies to the Workers' Re-Skilling Fund under Section 83 of the IR Code, covered in Industrial Relations Code 2020 Guide, where the substantive liability is also live and the collection machinery is held back.

The preceding articles in this series walk through each of the four Codes in operation. Labour Code Compliance Calendar strings the obligations across the calendar: day-1 setup, monthly cadence, annual cadence, and the events that trigger an out-of-cycle action. It is the working calendar an HR or payroll team can lift directly into its own ops sheet, with each item carrying its Code section, its threshold, and its timeline.