Ministry Of Labour And Employment Notifies And Enforces Four New Labour Codes

The Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India vide Gazette Notifications dated 21.11.2025, has notified and enforced all four labour codes, i.e., the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020¹, the Code on Social Security, 2020², the Industrial Relations Code, 2020³, and the Code on Wages, 2019⁴ (collectively, the "Codes"). These Codes consolidate 29 central labour laws into a unified compliance framework.

The key highlights of the Codes, inter-alia, are as follows:

1. Definition of audio-visual workers has been expanded to include dubbing artists and stunt performers and the definition of working journalists now cover electronic and digital media. The coverage has been extended to gig workers, platform workers, and fixed-term employees.
2. An establishment with 10 or more employees is required to obtain single electronic registration.
3. A higher threshold has been introduced for factory registrations (with and without power.
4. Appointment letters are mandatory for all employees and any existing staff without such letters must receive them within 3 months.
5. Women may work before 6 A.M. and after 7 P.M. with consent and safety measures.
6. Overtime is allowed only with the worker's consent, and the employee should be paid at twice the normal wages.
7. Contract labourers are allowed in core activities if ordinarily outsourced, not requiring full-time staff, or during temporary workload spikes.
8. The definition of worker now includes sales promotion staff and supervisors earning up to INR 18,000/month.
9. Any fixed-term employees are to get proportionate benefits and gratuity after 1 year as against the previous 5 years threshold.
10. Establishments with 20+ workers must form a 10 member grievance committee with equal employer worker representation and adequate women representation.
11. The threshold for standing orders and layoff/retrenchment/closure permissions has been raised from 100 to 300 workers.
12. Any mass casual leave by at least 50% workers in a day is to be treated as a strike. Strikes/lockouts require 60 days' notice.

Footnotes

1 The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

2 The Code on Social Security, 2020.

3 The Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

4 The Code on Wages, 2019.

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