Code on Social Security 2020: Which Chapters Apply to You?

Our old registrations and nominations stay valid, and so does everything else done under the nine Acts included in section 164(1), because section 164(2) saves it. A gratuity nomination taken in 2019, an EPFO registration, an exemption order, a scheme notification: the Code treats each as if it had been made under the Code. Each stays in force so far as it does not contradict the Code. One statute with fourteen chapters, 164 sections and seven schedules replaced nine Acts, nine sets of forms and nine inspectors. Identify the chapter governing each obligation and check whether its applicable headcount threshold has changed. The same establishment also has wage, industrial relations and safety duties under the new Labour Codes.

The other three Codes replaced the remaining twenty of the repealed Acts, so a payroll question is often answered by the Code on Wages, 2019 rather than by this one.

The listed provisions of the Code took effect on 21 November 2025, and the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 followed on 8 May 2026. Section 142, on Aadhaar-based identification, came into force earlier and separately, on 3 May 2021. One of the commencement orders brought section 142 into force in 2021, and another brought the listed provisions into force in 2025.

Section 164(2) preserves what you did only so far as that is not contrary to the Code, so an old order that conflicts with a Code provision has no effect to the extent of that conflict. It preserves nothing that has since been replaced. Section 164(2)(b) saved four named instruments and one class of instruments for a year from commencement, and most of those saved instruments were replaced before the year expired. Three schemes made on 29 June 2026 replaced the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, the Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 and the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995. The Central Rules of 8 May 2026 replaced the Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1997, and within the fifth item, the class of rules, regulations and schemes under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, they also replaced the ESI (Central) Rules, 1950. The ESI Regulations, 1950 remain in force under the saving, which expires around 20 November 2026 with no replacement identified in the reviewed material.

Coverage under the Code on Social Security, 2020 is decided by establishment size, chapter by chapter rather than once. The First Schedule sets provident fund at twenty employees and state insurance at ten persons. Gratuity and maternity apply at ten in a shop or establishment, and at any headcount on the classes clause (a) of each row names, neither clause carrying a number. The two clauses are not the same list. Gratuity applies to every factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port and railway company. Maternity benefit applies to a factory, mine or plantation, including one belonging to Government; clause (a) specifies no other class. So a six-person port owes gratuity and does not owe maternity benefit on clause (a). Section 1(4) makes that Schedule the applicability test, so each chapter applies to your establishment on its own terms. Count everyone employed directly or through a contractor, because section 2(26) puts agency staff on your number. Ritu employs 122 people on payroll and takes 18 more from a facilities contractor, which is 140 employees, so Chapters III, IV, V and VI all bind her firm today. One employee would be enough for Chapter IV where the occupation is one the Central Government notifies as hazardous or life-threatening, and no such notification under this Code has been located. That combined figure, not the payroll figure, is the number each First Schedule row is applied to.

The wage ceiling is notified under section 2(89), which contemplates one for Chapter III and Chapter IV alike. S.O. 5109(E) of 17 September 2026 sets ₹25,000 a month for Chapter III from its Gazette publication that day, superseding S.O. 2702(E) of 29 May 2026 and its ₹15,000 ceiling while saving earlier acts and omissions. It does not set a ceiling for Chapter IV. Two provisos to section 2(26) apply differently to the same headcount, and a borderline count depends on both. The first proviso covers, for Chapter III other than the provident fund scheme and for Chapter IV, only an employee "drawing wages less than or equal to the wage ceiling notified by the Central Government". The second proviso then says that for counting employees to decide whether the establishment is covered at all, "the employees, whose wages are more than the wage ceiling so notified by the Central Government, shall also be taken into account". So Ritu counts all 140 to determine whether Chapter III applies, and includes only employees at or below the ceiling after coverage is established. An employer who counts only the under-ceiling staff will conclude wrongly that no chapter applies. The provident-fund-scheme exception removes the ceiling from the statutory employee definition but not from the contribution calculation: paragraph 18(3) of the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026 limits the employer's and the employee's contribution to the amount payable on the wage ceiling where a member's wage exceeds it, and paragraph 9(4) lets the two of them jointly opt in writing to contribute above it.

Chapter VII and Chapter IV are alternative forms of coverage rather than cumulative forms, but the Schedule applies Chapter VII "subject to the provisions of the Second Schedule". The third proviso to section 2(26) confines "employee" for Chapter VII to the persons that Schedule lists, so a person outside Chapter IV who is not in the Second Schedule falls into neither chapter. Chapter VIII follows building work rather than establishment headcount, and still has a minimum threshold. Section 2(6) takes out of "building or other construction work" any such work employing fewer than ten workers in the preceding twelve months, work related to a factory or mine, and own-residence work costing under fifty lakh rupees.

Section 1(5) makes Chapter III applicable where the employer and a majority of employees agree, through the Central Provident Fund Commissioner. Section 1(7) does the same for Chapter IV through the Director General of the Corporation.

The third proviso to the Chapter IV row makes contributions payable under section 29 only from the date on which the Corporation provides Chapter IV benefits to the establishment's employees. The Central Government notifies that date, and it has notified none, so a newly covered establishment is covered with no stated contribution start date.

Which employees you then cover depends on the wage ceiling the Central Government notifies, and on the contribution rates and membership tests that follow from it. Whether the form or rate you file under yet exists depends on your State's rules.

Four categories are particularly relevant under this Code, and section 2 defines several more. Section 2 determines which workers are recognised and the meaning of each label before any chapter applies to them. An employee under section 2(26) is a person employed on wages by an establishment, directly or through a contractor, and an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961 is excluded by name. Our contract staff are employees: Ritu's 18 contractor-supplied staff are on her headcount, and the provident fund and insurance chapters cover them through the contractor who pays them. Section 2(86) defines an unorganised worker as a home-based, self-employed or wage worker in the unorganised sector. It adds a residual clause for a worker in the organised sector who is not covered by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or by Chapters III to VII. Both conditions must fail before that clause applies, and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 has since repealed the 1947 Act. Gig workers under section 2(35) work outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, and platform workers under section 2(61) through an online platform. Label each person on your headcount once, in writing, because registration, benefit and contribution all depend on that label.

• Employee, section 2(26). Employed on wages by an establishment, directly or through a contractor, for skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, manual, operational, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work. Three provisos qualify it: a wage ceiling for Chapters III and IV, a counting rule under which employees above that ceiling still count, and a limit confining "employee" for Chapter VII to the persons listed in the Second Schedule.
• Establishment, section 2(29). A place where an industry, trade, business, manufacture or occupation is carried on. It also covers a factory, motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment, audio-visual production, building work, plantation or mine, and a port or the vicinity of a port where dock work is done.
• Unorganised sector, section 2(85). An enterprise owned by an individual or self-employed workers engaged in the production or sale of goods or the provision of services, and where it employs workers, fewer than ten of them.
• Unorganised worker, section 2(86). A home-based, self-employed or wage worker in the unorganised sector, and a worker in the organised sector who is not covered by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or by Chapters III to VII. That first cross-reference is to an Act the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 repealed, and section 8(1) of the General Clauses Act, 1897 governs that cross-reference: a reference to a repealed provision is construed as a reference to the provision re-enacted, "unless a different intention appears".
• Home-based worker, section 2(36). A person producing goods or services for an employer in their own home or other premises of their choice, for remuneration, whoever provides the equipment or materials.
• Fixed term employment, section 2(34). An engagement on a written contract for a fixed period. Hours, wages, allowances and other benefits must be no less than a permanent employee's for the same or similar work, and statutory benefits follow proportionately to the service rendered.

A contractor-supplied worker on a covered establishment's headcount is an employee, and cannot also be an unorganised worker for the same engagement. Where classification under the two categories is unclear, apply the chapter test first, then determine worker classification from that result. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 and the Code on Wages, 2019 define these terms in their own sections, so a person who is an employee here may not be a worker under those Codes.

A definition is not an entitlement. Section 2 defines the categories; an entitlement to payment depends on an applicable chapter or notified scheme. Section 114(3) lets a gig and platform worker scheme be funded wholly or partly by aggregator contributions rather than by the employer, and section 114(4) sets that contribution between one and two per cent of the aggregator's annual turnover.

Who benefits from the Code depends on the chapter, and so does who pays. Under Chapters III to VIII you fund the benefit yourself, and under Chapter IX a government scheme pays it. Chapter IX continues the social-security provisions for unorganised workers formerly governed by the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008, which section 164(1) repealed. What is newly introduced is that gig workers and platform workers are named and covered in a social-security statute for the first time. As the employer you fund provident fund, state insurance, gratuity, maternity benefit, employee compensation, and cess where you build. Sections 109(1) and 109(2) require the Central Government and each State Government to frame and notify welfare schemes, so a worker in Chapter IX claims from a scheme rather than from you. The money is held in the Social Security Fund established by section 141, which keeps three separate accounts. Your contractor-supplied staff are classified as employees, so you fund their benefits under Chapters III to VII.

A scheme is the instrument that creates an entitlement for a Chapter IX worker. Three sets of provisions concern schemes, and only the first requires them to be notified. Sections 109(1) and 109(2) say the Central Government and each State Government "shall frame and notify" welfare schemes for unorganised workers. Section 114(1) says the Central Government "may" frame schemes for gig and platform workers, funded partly by aggregator contributions. Section 45(1) likewise says "may", for a scheme delivering Chapter IV benefits through the ESI Corporation.

A fund is where the money is held. Section 141 establishes the Central Social Security Fund with a separate account for section 109(3) money, for section 114(3) money, and for composition receipts and money from any other social security fund under a central labour law.

A board administers a chapter. Sections 4 and 5 constitute the bodies that run Chapters III and IV, section 6 the National Social Security Board and the State Unorganised Workers' Boards for Chapter IX, and section 7 the State building workers' welfare boards.

Until a scheme is notified, Chapter IX does not itself entitle a worker to a payment. No welfare scheme has been notified under Chapter IX. Section 114(5) requires the Central Government to notify the date from which aggregator contributions begin, and no such date exists. Check the position by date rather than reusing last quarter's answer. You can tell an unorganised worker that registration is available: they register themselves under section 113 from the age of sixteen, on a self-declaration with an Aadhaar number, on a portal the Central Government designates.

How long you must work for gratuity is fixed by the new Code at five years of continuous service, on any of five events. The second proviso to section 53(1) waives the five years for four of them: death, disablement due to accident or disease, expiry of a fixed-term contract, and any event the Central Government notifies, of which none has been notified. Superannuation, retirement and resignation still need the five years.

Section 54 prescribes three tests, and the first has no day count at all. Under clause (A) uninterrupted service counts as continuous even where it was broken by sickness, accident, leave, absence without leave, lay-off, a strike or a lock-out. Only where clause (A) is not satisfied does clause (B) deem a year of continuous service from 240 days actually worked. That number is 190 days for an employee below ground in a mine, or in an establishment working fewer than six days a week. Clause (B) also prescribes a six-month test at 120 days, or 95 days on the same split. Clause (C) replaces both tests for a seasonal establishment, at seventy-five per cent of the days the establishment was in operation. Every employee who completes one year of service makes a nomination under section 55, and the employer keeps it in safe custody.

• Superannuation, section 53(1)(a). Five years needed.
• Retirement or resignation, section 53(1)(b). Five years needed.
• Death or disablement due to accident or disease, section 53(1)(c). No five years.
• Termination of the contract period under fixed term employment, section 53(1)(d). No five years under section 53, and a different minimum applies instead. Rule 33(1)(a) of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 makes a fixed-term employee eligible after at least one year under the contract, and rounds a subsequent period over six months up to a further year. Section 2(o)(c) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 fixes the same one year and is statutory rather than a Central rule, so it applies to a State-sphere employer. It applies only to a "worker" as that Code defines the term, which excludes managerial and administrative staff and supervisors above ₹18,000 a month.
• Any event the Central Government notifies, section 53(1)(e). No five years, and no event has been notified.

An employee who resigns before five years gets nothing under section 53. Meera resigned after 4 years 8 months, which is short of the five years section 53 requires. If those 4 years 8 months had ended because a fixed-term contract expired, she would qualify, because the term ran past one year. If they had ended because an accident at work disabled her, she would qualify with no minimum at all. The first proviso to section 53(1) reads "five years" as three for a working journalist, and section 55 requires the nomination at one year of service rather than at five.

Three separate time limits apply to payment: one under section 56(3) and two under rule 33(2)(a). Section 56(2) requires you to determine the amount as soon as gratuity becomes payable, whether or not anyone has applied, and to give written notice to the person entitled and to the competent authority. Section 56(3) then gives you thirty days from the date the money becomes payable. Section 56(4) adds simple interest from that date until payment, at a rate not exceeding the long-term-deposit rate the Central Government notifies, unless the delay is the employee's fault and you hold the competent authority's written permission for it. Rule 33(2)(a) separately gives you fifteen days from receipt of an application to issue a Form V notice allowing or rejecting it, and to fix a payment date no later than the thirtieth day after receipt. That period never begins if nobody applies. Section 56(3) binds you even where no employee applies.

Section 57(1) requires every employer other than one belonging to or under the control of the Central or a State Government to obtain insurance for its gratuity liability from an IRDAI-regulated insurer, with effect from a date the appropriate Government notifies, and the appropriate Government has notified none. Section 57(3) separately requires every employer to register the establishment with the competent authority within a time the Central Government prescribes, and no employer is registered unless it holds that insurance or an approved gratuity fund. Section 57(2) then lets the appropriate Government exempt an employer who already runs an approved gratuity fund, and an employer of five hundred or more who establishes one, subject to conditions the Central Government prescribes. That exemption has to be granted rather than assumed, and no conditions have been prescribed.

A fixed-term employee whose contract expires earns gratuity on the service rendered, and gratuity for fixed-term employees is calculated on that period. The wage figure that calculation uses comes from what counts as wages under the Code on Wages, 2019, and specified allowances above one-half of total remuneration are counted back into it by the 50% wage rule.

The key provisions of Chapter VI of the Code are sections 59 to 72, and section 60(3) sets the duration. Maternity benefit is payable for 26 weeks under section 60(3), of which no more than eight weeks may precede the expected date of delivery, or 12 weeks where the woman already has two or more surviving children. Eligibility depends on one test: section 60(2) requires that she actually worked for you for at least 80 days in the twelve months immediately preceding her expected delivery date. A creche is due once you employ fifty employees, and she may visit the crèche four times a day under section 67(1). Work from home is not an extension of the leave. Section 60(5) lets employer and employee agree it after the benefit period, on terms both accept. Work the 80-day count from your attendance register as soon as her notice arrives, before you approve any date.

Aarti's expected date is 20 June 2026. Her twelve-month window therefore runs from 20 June 2025 to 19 June 2026, and she joined on 1 September 2025, so the count runs over roughly nine and a half months. Days she actually worked count, and so do days she was laid off and paid statutory holidays, which is what takes her past 80 comfortably. Section 62(2) then fixes the earliest date her notice may name: not earlier than eight weeks from the expected date, which is 25 April 2026.

Rule 37 of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 prescribes for the Central sphere what section 67 states in general terms. The crèche covers children below the age of six and must be within one kilometre of the establishment, unless the competent authority relaxes that distance. It may be a common facility pooled with other establishments, or run by a government body or another organisation. Where a negotiating union, a negotiating council or the majority of employees agrees the facility and the employer does not provide it, a crèche allowance is payable monthly to a woman, widower or single-parent employee with a child below six. It is not less than ₹500 per child, or such amount as the Central Government notifies, and is admissible for two children, except where a second birth produces multiple births.

Section 59(1) and (2) prohibit employing a woman, and prohibit her working, during the six weeks immediately following delivery, miscarriage or medical termination, and that holds even if she offers to come in. Section 59(3) protects a pregnant woman from arduous work, long hours of standing and work likely to interfere with the pregnancy, and it operates on a request being made by her. Section 64 gives a medical bonus of ₹3,500, or such amount as the Central Government notifies, unless you provide pre-natal confinement and post-natal care free of charge. Section 68 makes it unlawful to discharge or dismiss her during or on account of the absence, or to vary her service conditions to her disadvantage. A dismissal during pregnancy does not deprive her of the benefit or the bonus, except for prescribed gross misconduct.

Section 61 provides that a woman entitled to maternity benefit under Chapter VI continues to be so entitled "notwithstanding the application of Chapter IV to the factory or other establishment in which she is employed". That entitlement continues until she qualifies to claim under section 32. Coverage under Chapter IV does not discharge the Chapter VI liability. You owe the Chapter VI benefit until she qualifies to claim under section 32.

Digitalisation under the Code means an electronic default, and section 3(1), section 123 and rule 53 each permit paper as well. Every establishment the Code covers must be registered under section 3(1), which says "electronically or otherwise". A proviso to that section says an establishment already registered under another central labour law "shall not be required to obtain registration again", and deems that registration to be registration under the Code. A new establishment uses Form I of the OSH Central Rules, which rule 5 of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 cross-applies. These Rules have no registration form of their own, and their Form I is the section 23 appeal rather than a registration form.

Section 3(1) attaches no condition to that deeming: an establishment already registered under another Central labour law "shall not be required to obtain registration again under this Code". Section 3(8) of the OSH Code prescribes a separate condition, which deems such an establishment registered subject to its providing the details of registration to the registering officer in the prescribed time and form. Rule 5(3) requires an employer whose establishment is already registered under another central labour law to update its particulars on the Shram Suvidha Portal "within such period as prescribed under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020", and rule 5(6) requires any later change in those Form I particulars to be updated within thirty days. Rule 5 is made by the Central Government under sections 3(1) and 155(c), and section 154, the appropriate-Government list, contains no entry for section 3. So rule 5 binds every establishment the Code covers, in the Central sphere and the State sphere alike, and a State-sphere employer owes the thirty-day duty directly. Only the time limit incorporated by rule 5(3) differs between the Central and State spheres: OSH rule 3(6) gives six months from 8 May 2026, so the filing closes on 8 November 2026 for a Central-sphere establishment, and a State-sphere employer takes its period from what that State prescribes under the OSH Code, which no State has yet done.

Section 123 sets what registers and returns an employer must maintain, electronically or on paper, and rule 53 names the forms for the Central sphere.

Those forms are forms of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 and of the Wages (Central) Rules, 2026, and sections 123(a) and 56(1) leave the form to the appropriate Government, so they bind the Central sphere. A proviso to rule 53(1)(a) deems the first three satisfied where the same registers are kept under the Code on Wages, 2019 or the OSH Code, and rule 53(1)(e) requires each to be kept in original for five calendar years. The unified annual return in Form XXIII attaches under rule 53(5)(a) to an employer to whom Chapters V and VI apply, and not to every employer the Code covers. The register of women employees is kept "electronically or otherwise" under rule 53(1)(b). The instruction to write it in ink, and the wider statement that every employer files Form XXIII, appear only in Form XIV, which is drafted on the pre-2017 maternity law.

Aadhaar is mandatory at claim time rather than at hiring. Section 142 requires a person to establish identity through an Aadhaar number to register as a member or beneficiary, and to draw provident fund, gratuity, maternity benefit, pension or medical benefit. A foreign employee obtains and submits one on becoming a resident within the meaning of the Aadhaar Act. Collect and seed the numbers as part of onboarding, because a missing number can prevent a claim when payment falls due. The appropriate Government prescribes the remaining forms, so a State can change one without the Code changing.

The mechanism the Code provides for employer compliance is a written direction first and a penalty second: section 137 requires the direction, and section 133 sets the fines and prison terms. Section 133(g) punishes not paying gratuity that is due with up to a year in prison, or ₹50,000, or both. Denying maternity benefit falls under section 133(i), at up to six months, or ₹50,000, or both, and so does failing to produce a register on the Inspector-cum-Facilitator's demand under section 133(k). Failing to pay a contribution attracts a more severe penalty. The term under section 133(a) may extend to three years in every case, with a minimum of one year and a ₹1 lakh fine where the employer deducted the employee's share and did not pay it over, and two to six months with a ₹50,000 fine in any other case. In both, the court may record adequate and special reasons for a lesser term.

Section 137 applies before any prosecution under section 133. Before starting one, the officer must "give an opportunity to the employer to comply with the aforesaid relevant provisions by way of a written direction, which shall lay down a time period for such compliance". If the employer complies within that period, no proceeding is initiated. That opportunity is withdrawn where a violation of the same nature repeats within three years of the first.

An offence can be settled without a trial, but only some of them: section 138 lets an employer compound an offence, on two conditions. It applies only to an offence "committed for the first time" that is punishable with fine only, or with imprisonment "for a term which is not more than one year and also with fine". A contributions default under section 133(a), at three years, is outside it. The gratuity and maternity offences are punishable with imprisonment "or with fine, or with both", which is neither of those: not a fine only, and not imprisonment and also with fine.

In the Central sphere the process starts with the officer rather than with you. Rule 54(1) has the compounding officer issue a compounding notice in Form XXIV, rule 54(2) gives you fifteen days from receipt to apply in Part III of that Form and deposit the whole composition amount, rule 54(3) gives the officer ten days to issue the certificate, and rule 54(4) requires prosecution one month after the last date if you do not deposit. A State-sphere employer follows the form and manner that State prescribes under section 138(4).

Section 134 sets the penalty for a repeat offence, and it is heavier than anything in section 133. A second or subsequent conviction for the same offence is punishable with up to two years and a fine of ₹2 lakh. Where the repeat is a failure "to pay any contribution, charges, cess, maternity benefit, gratuity or compensation", the term "may extend to three years but shall not be less than two years". The fine is ₹3 lakh, and the minimum is mandatory.

A woman claiming that maternity benefit or another amount has been improperly withheld goes to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator under section 72, with a 30-day appeal. A gratuity dispute is decided by the competent authority appointed for your area under section 58. Both officers are appointed for a specified area, so which one you deal with depends on where the establishment is. Section 133(a) punishes a contribution default under Chapter III, and section 17(1) makes you liable for the contractor's contributions as well.

Yes, the Code applies to small businesses, in four separate ways. Chapters V and VI apply to a shop or establishment in which ten or more employees "were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months". A nine-person firm that hires four people for six weeks owes gratuity and maternity duties after they have gone. Your people may also qualify as unorganised workers under section 2(86), where neither the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 nor any chapter from III to VII covers them, which makes them eligible to register under section 113 and to claim under any scheme notified for unorganised workers. Section 1(5) lets you and a majority of your employees agree to apply Chapter III voluntarily before the mandatory threshold of twenty is met. And Chapter VII applies to you precisely because Chapter IV does not, subject to the Second Schedule. An establishment below those thresholds may still be subject to the Code: section 2(86) may cover its workers, section 1(5) permits voluntary Chapter III coverage, and Chapter VII imposes employee-compensation liability directly.

Chapter IV uses the present tense and Chapters V and VI use a twelve-month look-back. Chapter IV applies to an establishment "in which ten or more persons are employed", which is today's headcount. Chapters V and VI apply where ten or more "are employed, or were employed, on any day of the preceding twelve months", so meeting the threshold on a single day makes the chapter applicable. Section 1(8) then preserves that applicability despite a later reduction in headcount: an establishment to which a Chapter applies at the first instance "shall continue to be applied thereafter even if the number of employees therein at any subsequent time falls below the threshold". An employer who reads the Chapter IV row and assumes Chapters V and VI match will miss a duty that a past peak has already made applicable.

Nikhil employs 8 people all year and hired four more for six weeks last December. Twelve people were employed on some days in the preceding twelve months, so Chapters V and VI applied to his studio from those days. He then owed the maternity intimation duty under section 67(2) and the gratuity nomination duty under section 55.

1. Record the peak headcount by date, from the payroll or the muster roll, and keep it.
2. Take a nomination under section 55 from everyone past one year of service, and hold it in safe custody.
3. Tell his staff that registration under section 113 is available on a self-declaration with an Aadhaar number from the age of sixteen.

Chapter VII applies to him as well, because Chapter IV does not. The First Schedule applies it "to the employers and employees to whom Chapter IV does not apply", subject to the Second Schedule, so an employer below the Chapter IV threshold owes the employee-compensation liability directly rather than through the Corporation, for the persons that Schedule lists. Read the Schedule row for the chapter in question rather than assuming a single company-wide number, and remember that agency-supplied staff count towards every one of them.