What Are the Four Labour Codes, and Which One Applies?

Each Labour Code governs one part of the employment relationship: pay, workforce relations, benefits, and workplace conditions. The Code on Wages, 2019 fixes what you must pay and when. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 governs unions, standing orders, discipline and workforce change. The Code on Social Security, 2020 covers provident fund, insurance, gratuity and maternity benefit. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 governs registration, appointment letters, working conditions and contract labour. If your question is about money on a payslip, start with Wages. If it is about a person leaving, start with Industrial Relations.

The 4th labour Code in the standard list is the OSH Code. The four are listed in the order they were enacted: the Code on Wages received assent on 8 August 2019, and the other three on 28 September 2020.

All four Codes contain their own definition of wages, and all four open with identical words. Section 2(y) of the Code on Wages governs wages, bonus and equal pay. Section 2(88) of the Code on Social Security governs provident fund, state insurance, gratuity and maternity benefit. Section 2(1)(zzj) of the OSH Code governs overtime. Section 2(zq) of the Industrial Relations Code governs the average pay in section 2(d), on which the retrenchment compensation in section 70(b) and the lay-off compensation in section 67 are computed. A payroll engine that computes one figure and applies it to all four will be wrong somewhere, and the exclusion list in section 2(y) applies to wages, bonus and equal pay alone.

Yes, the Labour Codes are implemented. All four commenced on 21 November 2025 as to the provisions their commencement orders listed, and the Ministry of Labour and Employment notified the four sets of Central Rules on 8 May 2026, which are final rather than draft. The new labour Code position in 2026 is those Central Rules, made under Codes that commenced in November 2025, together with Act 1 of 2026, which amended the Industrial Relations Code, and the notifications issued since. Three provident fund schemes replaced their 1952, 1976 and 1995 predecessors on 29 June 2026, and S.O. 4710(E) and S.O. 4711(E) of 25 August 2026 fixed the bonus base at ₹7,000 and the eligibility ceiling at ₹21,000, both with effect from 21 November 2025. The Code on Social Security is in force entire, and its section 142 has been in force since 3 May 2021 under S.O. 1730(E), which makes it the only provision of any Code in force before 21 November 2025. What is missing there is not commencement but the notifications the commenced sections call for: no date has been notified for the state insurance contribution under section 29, and no Chapter IX scheme exists. The only provisions of any Code still uncommenced anywhere are the State Advisory Board provisions of sections 42(10), 42(11) and 67(2)(s) and (t) of the Code on Wages. Your State may not have notified its rules yet, so keep filing on your existing State forms and rates until it does. For Ritu that means the Codes bind her Pune office today while her Maharashtra forms still stand. Four separate commencement orders of 21 November 2025, S.O. 5319(E), 5320(E), 5321(E) and 5322(E), appointed that date for the Social Security, Industrial Relations, OSH and Wages Codes respectively. A State Government fixes its own date for the rules it makes.

How many laws each Code consolidated differs by Code. The four together consolidate 29 central Acts and repeal every one of them: four under the Code on Wages, three under the Industrial Relations Code, nine under the Code on Social Security, and 13 under the OSH Code. So the Factories Act, 1948 is no longer in force, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 is repealed with it, and the OSH Code governs both subjects now. Each Code repeals its own predecessors in its repeal-and-savings section, and repeal and savings for the OSH Code is section 143. Ritu's housekeeping contract still cites the Contract Labour Act, 1970 by name. Search your contracts, offer letters and registers for these Act names, and replace each with the Code that repealed it.

The appointment-letter duty existed before the OSH Code. Section 5 of the Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 is item (i) on the OSH Code's repeal list, and is headed "Issue of appointment letter". It gave employers three months to issue letters to people already employed, which is the transition section 6(1)(f) of the OSH Code now gives. That 1976 Act applied in the first instance to establishments in the pharmaceutical industry, under its section 1(4). What section 6(1)(f) does is extend a duty that already existed for one industry to every employer of an establishment to which the OSH Code applies.

Yes. Your old registrations are still valid, and the old rules and notifications still apply, because every Code saves what was validly done under the Act it repeals, until that item is replaced or contradicted. Four savings provisions preserve those items: section 69(2) of the Code on Wages, section 104(2) of the Industrial Relations Code, section 164(2) of the Code on Social Security and section 143(3) of the OSH Code. Each deems existing notifications, appointments, orders, schemes and registrations to continue under the corresponding provision of the new Code. Your State's minimum wage notification, your certified standing orders and your existing registrations therefore remain in force, so far as they do not conflict with the Code that replaced them. Section 143(2) of the OSH Code adds one thing more: "Every Chief Inspector, Additional Chief Inspector, Joint Chief Inspector, Deputy Chief Inspector, Inspector and every other officer" appointed under a repealed Act is deemed appointed under the Code.

• Keep. A notification, appointment, order or scheme made under a repealed Act continues by force of the savings clause. Sections 69(3) of the Code on Wages and 143(4) of the OSH Code apply section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, so accrued rights, liabilities and pending proceedings under a repealed Act survive it.
• Check. A saved item continues only so far as it is not contrary to the Code, so read each one against the Code that replaced it. Check also whether a saved item has been repealed since. Sections 69(2) and 143(3) give that power to the Central Government, section 164(2)(a) gives it to the appropriate Government, and section 104(2) of the Industrial Relations Code contains no repeal provision at all.
• Check, with a date. Section 164(2)(b) of the Code on Social Security saved four named instruments and one class of instruments for a year, and the named four were superseded before the year expired. Within the class, the Employees' State Insurance Regulations, 1950 still stand on that saving, which expires around 20 November 2026, and no instrument has yet replaced them. The pension saving ran out earlier still, because S.O. 2060(E) commenced it on 3 May 2023 rather than on the Code's commencement.
• Redo. Whatever the Code creates fresh. Standing orders that existed on 21 November 2025 continue, and section 30(11) deems them certified under section 30(8), so far as they are not inconsistent with the Code or the rules made under it. What section 30(1) required was different: an employer to whom Chapter IV applies had six months from commencement to prepare draft standing orders on the Model Standing Orders, 2026 and forward them for certification, and that period expired on 21 May 2026. It applies where there were no standing orders to continue, or where the ones you have conflict with the Code. 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, under section 28(1). Every employee of an establishment to which the OSH Code applies must hold an appointment letter under section 6(1)(f). Rule 6 of the OSH Central Rules, 2026 bars employing a person before the letter is issued, and prescribes a sixteen-field format for the Central sphere.
• File, if the Centre is your appropriate Government. The savings clauses do not cover a change of registration particulars. Rule 3(6) of the OSH Central Rules, 2026 requires an employer already registered under any other Central labour law to update its registration particulars in FORM-I within six months of 8 May 2026, closing 8 November 2026. Rule 5(3) of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 fixes no period of its own and takes that same six months from the OSH rule, for the Shram Suvidha Portal. Both are Central-sphere dates, because section 2(1)(zy) of the OSH Code makes "prescribed" mean prescribed by the appropriate Government, and a State-sphere establishment takes its period from its own State's rules.

Ritu's certified standing orders and her Maharashtra registrations did not lapse on 21 November 2025, and her first job is a conflict check rather than a re-filing exercise. If any of her establishments is inside Chapter IV of the Industrial Relations Code, the section 30(1) period for draft standing orders expired on 21 May 2026 and a saved certification is not a certification under the Code. And Maharashtra has notified no period for the FORM-I update, so no date binds her on that one yet.

One of the four Codes governs each of salary, PF, hiring, unions, safety, contract labour and records, and which Code covers which is settled once, at the start. The Code on Wages, 2019 governs salary. The Code on Social Security, 2020 governs PF, ESI and gratuity. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 governs unions and exits. The OSH Code governs hiring, safety, contract labour and records. The Code you start with fixes which authority you deal with and which form you file. Ritu owes the payroll, appointment-letter, PF and ESI, working-hours and contract-labour duties at her 140-person office, and unions and exits are not her question this week.

The wage base for provident fund and gratuity is section 2(88) of the Code on Social Security, and not section 2(y) of the Code on Wages. Each definition has its own one-half proviso on its own clauses (a) to (i), so the 50% wage rule is run twice, once in each statute, and the two can give different answers. When a contractor fails to pay, section 55(3) of the OSH Code makes the principal employer liable for the balance in full, recoverable from the contractor by deduction under the contract or as a debt. The Code on Wages has its own fallback in the proviso to section 43, which makes the proprietor of the establishment responsible where the employer, including a contractor, fails to pay. What section 55(3) adds is the express right of recovery that section 43 does not give.

No separate overtime register is prescribed under the OSH Central Rules, 2026 or the Wages (Central) Rules, 2026. Rule 72(1) of the OSH set prescribes an employee register in Form XIII, an attendance register-cum-muster roll in Form XIV, and a register of wages, overtime and deductions in Form XV. Rule 72(5) requires a return in Forms XVII and XVIII on or before 28 or 29 February following each calendar year. Rule 51(1) of the Wages set prescribes registers in Forms I, IV and IX. Both sets are Central.

Each Code sets its own thresholds, and you count for each Code separately. Standing orders start at 300 workers under section 28(1) of the Industrial Relations Code, counted on any day of the preceding twelve months. The lay-off, retrenchment and closure permissions in Chapter X start at 300 workers employed on an average per working day in the preceding twelve months, under section 77(1). Below that, Chapter IX still applies, and section 70 has no minimum headcount at all. It protects a worker in continuous service for not less than one year, and it needs one month's written notice or wages in lieu, fifteen days' average pay for every completed year of continuous service or any part of a year in excess of six months, and notice to the appropriate Government, whatever the size of the establishment. A grievance committee starts at 20 workers under section 4(1) of the same Code, in Chapter II. Bonus starts at 20 persons employed, or employed on any day during the accounting year, under section 41(2) of the Code on Wages, subject to the nine classes section 41(1) excludes. The OSH Code applies to an establishment at ten workers under section 2(1)(v), and its contract-labour Part at fifty contract labour under section 45(1). The Code on Social Security applies Chapters III and IV at 20 employees and 10 persons under the First Schedule, and Chapters V and VI at 10 in a shop or establishment but at any headcount on the classes clause (a) of each row names. Those two lists differ: gratuity applies to every factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port and railway company, and maternity benefit applies to a factory, mine or plantation only. Section 1(8) then keeps a chapter applying even if the headcount later falls below the threshold.

Two or three Codes apply to one event, so handle them in sequence, starting with the Code that controls the decision itself. When Ritu ends a fixed-term contract at her 140-person Pune firm, the Industrial Relations Code controls the process and the Code on Social Security controls the gratuity question. The Code on Wages fixes when the final payment must reach the employee. When she renews the housekeeping contract for her 22 contract workers, the OSH Code controls licensing and it also controls what happens if the contractor does not pay. Work the controlling Code first, then the follow-on ones.

Scenario A. A fixed-term contract expires.

1. Settle whether the person is a worker or an employee, because each of the four Codes defines those two words for itself, and the definition that applies fixes the duty you owe.
2. Apply the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 to the process. Expiry of a fixed term is not retrenchment under section 2(zh) of that Code, so the Chapter X permission regime does not arise on expiry alone.
3. Apply the Code on Social Security, 2020 to gratuity. A fixed-term employee is entitled to gratuity on a pro rata basis when the fixed term expires after one year of continuous service under that contract, and the trigger is expiry of the term rather than resignation. Section 53 removes the five-year requirement on that expiry, and the one year comes from rule 33(1)(a) of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 and from section 2(o)(c) of the Industrial Relations Code.
4. Apply the Code on Wages, 2019 to the payment date. Section 17(2) of that Code gives two working days on removal, dismissal, retrenchment, resignation or unemployment through closure. Expiry of a fixed term is in none of those five, so the ordinary section 17(1) deadline for the wage period applies instead.

Scenario B. A contract-labour engagement is renewed.

1. Count the contract labour. Part I of Chapter XI of the OSH Code applies at fifty or more contract labour employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, under section 45(1). Section 45(2) excludes an establishment where only intermittent or casual work is performed, but its Explanation says work is not intermittent if performed for more than 120 days in the preceding twelve months, or, if seasonal, more than 60 days in a year, and the appropriate Government decides the question finally.
2. Check the contractor's licence. Section 47 puts the licence on the contractor, not on you, and rule 90(1) of the OSH Central Rules, 2026 requires a bank guarantee of ₹1,000 for each contract labour applied for.
3. Fix the wage liability in the contract. Section 55(1) of the OSH Code makes the contractor responsible for paying the contract labour. Section 55(3) of the same Code then makes you liable for the balance in full if the contractor fails or short-pays.
4. Count the same people again for the Code on Social Security. Section 2(26) of that Code counts a person employed through a contractor as your employee, so Ritu's 22 contract workers count towards her headcount for coverage even though the vendor pays them. The first proviso limits "employee" to those at or below the notified wage ceiling for Chapter III, except in the case of the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, and for Chapter IV. The second counts employees above that ceiling for coverage. S.O. 5109(E) raises the Chapter III ceiling to ₹25,000 a month from 17 September 2026, superseding the earlier ₹15,000 notification. It does not change Chapter IV. That carve-out governs the definition and not the remittance: paragraph 18(3) of the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026 caps the contribution at the ceiling unless the employee and the employer jointly opt in writing under paragraph 9(4).

Ritu's 140 employees and her 22 contract workers are counted against thresholds set in different Codes. Her 140 employees are below the 300 at which prior permission for lay-off, retrenchment and closure starts, though section 70 still requires notice, compensation and notice to the Government at that size. Her 22 contract workers are below the fifty at which the contract-labour Part applies.

The applicable Code depends on the employment issue that must be resolved.

• If the question is about a number on a payslip, the Code on Wages, 2019 governs it, and the exclusions in section 2(y) settle which allowances count as wages.
• If it is about a person leaving, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 governs it, and prior permission at 300 workers is the first test to run, with section 70 owed below it.
• If it is about a contribution, the Code on Social Security, 2020 governs it, and the contribution rates and ceilings fix what you pay.
• If it is about whether someone counts as a worker or an employee, settle that first, because each Code attaches its duties to its own definition.

You answer these six questions in order, starting with whether the Centre or your State is the appropriate Government for your establishment.

1. Where the establishment is. The Central Government is the appropriate Government for railways, mines, oil fields, major ports, air transport, telecommunications, banking, insurance and central undertakings. A State Government is the appropriate Government for most other establishments, with exceptions: registration under section 3 of the Code on Social Security is prescribed by the Central Government for every sphere, and the OSH health, welfare and creche standards in sections 23 and 24 are Central Government matters under section 134. Check your State's rule status before relying on any form.
2. How many people work there. Count everyone employed directly or through a contractor, per establishment rather than per company.
3. What they do. A factory, mine or plantation attracts duties an office does not, and the OSH Code applies to a mine, a port or the vicinity of a port at any headcount.
4. How they are engaged. A person may be permanent, fixed-term, contract labour through a vendor, an apprentice under the Apprentices Act, 1961, or a gig or platform worker, and each Code's own definitions fix which label applies.
5. What the event is. The event is a payment, a hire, a roster change, a disciplinary step, the end of an engagement, or the renewal of a vendor contract.
6. When it happened. The Codes apply from 21 November 2025 as to their listed provisions, the Central Rules from 8 May 2026, and a State rule from whatever date that State notifies.

• Pay, minimum wages, deductions and bonus. The Code on Wages, 2019 requires timely wage payment, limits deductions and governs bonus. Pay at least the applicable notified minimum rate.
• Unions, standing orders, discipline and workforce change. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 governs these matters, with different headcount tests for grievance committees, standing orders and prior retrenchment permission.
• Provident fund, insurance, gratuity, maternity and gig cover. The Code on Social Security, 2020 applies chapter by chapter. For gig and platform workers, sections 113 and 114 govern registration and schemes, including aggregator contributions.
• Registration, appointment letters, hours, safety and contract labour. The OSH Code governs these obligations, including rest intervals, leave and weekly working-hour limits and night-work safeguards.
• Implementation sequence. Prioritise the initial compliance work according to the applicable obligation and the commencement date of each provision.
• Worker, employee and workman across the four Codes. Classify the same person separately under each applicable Code’s definitions; the definitions are not interchangeable.

Apply the specific provision governing the decision, including its conditions and exceptions.