The Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoLE) on November 21, 2025, notified regarding the enforcement of four labour codes to simplify and streamline Labour Laws.
The Government has announced that the four major labour codes — Code on Wages, 2019, Industrial Relations Code, 2020, Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — will come into effect from November 21, 2025. These codes replace 29 earlier labour laws, aiming to simplify compliance and modernize India’s labour framework. The reforms ensure universal minimum wages, formalization of work, and extend social security benefits to gig workers, platform workers, and unorganized labour, marking a major shift towards workforce inclusion.
Key Provisions include:
• Universal Minimum Wages: Statutory minimum wage coverage extends to all workers, ensuring uniformity across sectors.
• Social Security Expansion: Gig workers, platform workers, and informal sector workers gain access to a provident fund, insurance, and other benefits.
• Simplified Compliance for Employers: Multiple registers, inspections, and returns are consolidated into a streamlined framework to reduce regulatory burden.
• Flexibility in Industrial Relations: Provisions for fixed-term employment, streamlined hiring/exit processes, and revised thresholds for layoffs and retrenchment.
• Worker Welfare & Safety: Mandatory workplace facilities, improved health and safety standards, welfare boards, and interstate migrant protections strengthened.
[Press Release ID: 2192463]
