Dear HRLAW Practitioners,

In India, employment laws have traditionally been governed by contracts as well as a plethora of disparate and fragmented legislation at both the national and state levels.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced four bills in 2019 to amalgamate 29 central laws related to labor laws in order to harmonise and consolidate the various legislations pertaining to employment, social security, wages, industrial disputes, and other relevant labour or employment-related matters.

The bills were codified and signed into law as follows:

• The Code of Wages, 2019;
• The Industrial Relation Code, 2020;
• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020; and
• The Code on Social Security, 2020.