The Social Security Code consolidates nine statutes — EPF 1952, ESI 1948, Maternity Benefit 1961, Payment of Gratuity 1972, Workmen's Compensation 1923, BOCW Cess 1996 and three more — and adds the world's first national statutory frame for gig and platform workers. A practitioner's read on the gig and platform definitions, the 1-to-2 per cent aggregator contribution, the pro-rata gratuity rule, and the June 2026 commencement gap.
The first of the four labour Codes consolidates the Payment of Wages Act 1936, the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 into a single instrument. Partially commenced in December 2020; the substantive chapters await further Section 1(3) notifications. A practitioner's read on the architecture, the open compliance questions, and the old-law judgments that continue to govern.
The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 consolidates the Trade Unions Act 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 into a single instrument. Three substantive shifts — fixed-term employment recognition, the universal 60-day strike notice, and the 300-worker layoff threshold — redraw India's labour-flexibility map. A practitioner's read on the architecture, the open Rules questions, and the old-law jurisprudence that continues to govern.
The Code on Wages 2019, the Industrial Relations Code 2020, the OSH Code 2020 and the Code on Social Security 2020 have all been gazetted. Almost none of their substantive provisions are in force. A practitioner's map of the commencement architecture, the State Rules patchwork, the writ-petition pipeline, and what continues to govern in June 2026.
The OSH Code consolidates thirteen statutes — Factories Act 1948, Mines Act 1952, Contract Labour 1970, Inter-State Migrant Workmen 1979, BOCW 1996, Plantation Labour 1951 and seven more — into a single occupational-safety frame. A practitioner's read on the new factory threshold, the migrant worker definition, the contract-labour line, and the June 2026 commencement gap.
The May–June 2026 cycle in Indian service and employment law has produced the most operationally consequential clutch of developments since the four Labour Codes were notified on 21 November 2025. The *Social Security (Central) Rules 2026* — notified on 8 May 2026 — operationalise the Chapter IX gig-and-platform-worker framework with the first enforceable monetary obligation on aggregators. The *MoLE* additional FAQs on the Codes supply working compliance guidance — including a standardised 50%-of-CTC wages definition. *Bhola Nath v. State of Jharkhand* refines the *Umadevi* regularisation discipline through the model-employer doctrine. *Avinash Kumar v. UoI* polices deemed-abandonment clauses. *Virinder Pal Singh v. Punjab and Sind Bank* settles the continuing-post-retirement-disciplinary question. *Rupesh Kumar Meena v. UoI* preserves the finality of selection. *Balaji Madhukar Konkanwar* rejects estoppel on structural-inequality grounds. The Supreme Court strikes down the three-month adoption-age cap on maternity leave under the *Code on Social Security 2020*. The dismissal-versus-compulsory-retirement dichotomy under *Article 311(2)* is given operational content. Read together, the cycle resets the working architecture in which Indian service-and-employment practice now runs.