Documentation
All four Labour Codes commenced on 21 November 2025, with Central Rules following on 8 May 2026, and they repealed the Factories Act 1948, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946, and the Maternity Benefit Act 1961. We set up your appointment letters, statutory registers, wage slips, and notice-board display against the Codes as they stand now, and check which headcount-triggered obligations you've reached.
All four Labour Codes commenced on 21 November 2025, with Central Rules following on 8 May 2026, and they repealed the Factories Act 1948, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946, and the Maternity Benefit Act 1961. We set up your appointment letters, statutory registers, wage slips, and notice-board display against the Codes as they stand now.
The Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, and the Code on Social Security all commenced on 21 November 2025. The Industrial Relations Code and the OSH Code commenced in full; the Code on Wages and the Social Security Code commenced partially. Central Rules followed on 8 May 2026.
A lot of employment-compliance content, and a lot of HR document sets drafted before late 2025, still cite the three Acts these Codes repealed as though they're live law. They aren't anymore.
Scope
Under the OSH Code's employer duties (ss.6, 7, 10-12), with no headcount floor.
Wage register, attendance/muster roll, overtime register, and register of fines and deductions, under Code on Wages ss.19, 21, 50, retained for five years, physical or electronic.
Wage slips on or before payment, and a notice-board display of minimum wage, hours, wage period, pay date, and your Inspector-cum-Facilitator's name in English, Hindi, and the local language, both under Code on Wages s.50.
OSH registration at 10 or more employees, a Grievance Redressal Committee at 20 or more workers, a Works Committee at 100 or more, and Standing Orders at 300 or more, each pulled in only once your headcount actually reaches it.
Specifics
The Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and the Code on Social Security, 2020, all commenced on 21 November 2025. In doing so, they repealed a set of Acts that most employment-compliance content still treats as live: the Factories Act, 1948 and twelve other Acts through the OSH Code, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 through the IR Code, and the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 through the Social Security Code, among others.
If your appointment letters, registers, or standing orders were drafted citing the Factories Act, the 1946 Standing Orders Act, or the Maternity Benefit Act, they're citing repealed law. The substance often carries forward into the Codes in a similar shape, but the citation, and sometimes the threshold, has changed.
| Threshold | Obligation | Code / section |
|---|---|---|
| 10 or more employees | OSH registration, filed electronically within 60 days of the establishment coming into existence | OSH Code s.3 |
| 20 or more workers | Grievance Redressal Committee | IR Code s.4 |
| 100 or more workers | Works Committee, where the appropriate government directs it | IR Code s.3 |
| 300 or more workers | Standing Orders: adopt the Model Standing Orders, or draft and certify your own, within six months of commencement | IR Code ss.28-30 |
The Standing Orders threshold is worth flagging on its own. It sits at 300 workers now. Under the repealed 1946 Act it was 100.
Labour sits on the Concurrent List, so the procedural machinery, the registering authority, the inspectors, the forms, and some thresholds, runs on each state's own notified rules rather than the Central Rules alone. As of this research, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Kerala had notified final rules across the Codes; Delhi only under the Wages and Social Security Codes; several states were still working through theirs. Where your state hasn't finalised its rules yet, the position is genuinely unsettled, and we'll say so rather than pointing you at a process that doesn't exist yet.
Process
Step 1 of 4
Confirm headcount and state
To fix which threshold-triggered obligations apply and which state's rules govern the filing mechanics.
Common mistakes founders make
Clarifications
No. It was repealed when the OSH Code commenced on 21 November 2025, along with twelve other Acts it absorbed. Any document set still citing it is out of date.
Also repealed, into the Industrial Relations Code. Its 100-worker threshold no longer applies; Standing Orders now sit at 300 workers under IR Code ss.28-30.
Appointment letters, the wage and attendance registers, wage slips, and the notice-board display all apply with no headcount floor. You've also crossed the 10-employee line for OSH registration.
Yes. Labour is a Concurrent List subject, and several states hadn't finalised their own rules as of this research. We confirm the current position for your state before filing anything that depends on it.
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