The Ministry of Labor and Employment on Thursday pre-released draft rules for four labor codes to solicit feedback from stakeholders. The government intends to make the four codes fully operational from 1 April 2026 across the country at once.
Four labor codes were announced on Thursday — the Wages Code, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Social Security Code, 2020 and the Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.
Social security for gig workers
In its draft rules, the Center suggested that to be eligible for benefits under these codes, gig workers or platform workers must be employed as one “for at least 90 days with an aggregator, or in the case of multiple aggregators, for at least one hundred and twenty days in the last financial year”.
But what if the gig worker is involved in multiple aggregators? To explain this rule, the center developed:
(i) A gig worker or platform worker shall be deemed to be employed with an aggregator for a day if he has received income for such work done irrespective of the amount
with the aggregator on the given calendar day;
(ii) In the case of working with multiple aggregators, the gig worker or platform worker days of employment are counted cumulatively for all aggregators;
(iii) If a gig worker or a platform worker is engaged with three aggregators on a particular calendar day, it counts as three days.
The Center is looking for feedback
Now states are also in the process of formally publishing the rules under the four codes as labor is a concurrent subject, news agency PTI reported.
The Department has given stakeholders 30 days from the publication of the draft rules to provide feedback on the Labor Relations Code, 2020.
The ministry has given 45 days to provide feedback on the remaining three codes.
Commenting on the development, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said: “The publication of draft rules under the four labor codes marks a key step in putting India’s labor reforms into practice.”
“By offering clear and practical ways to implement the rules, they help industry prepare with confidence, simplify compliance and promote sustainable growth while strengthening worker protections,” Banerjee said.
Addressing the CII IndiaEdge 2025 earlier this month, Union Labor and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said draft rules under the four labor codes would be released soon.
He also said earlier that the central government as well as the states had published the draft rules in advance, but that was a long time ago and now there is a need to bring the draft rules again in line with the present.
The minister also highlighted the government’s intention to meet the target of providing social security to 100 million workers by March 2026, against the existing 94 million in the country.
Social Security coverage expanded from 19 percent in 2015 to more than 64 percent in 2025.
Since labor is a concurrent subject, the respective governments — center and states — will have to notify the rules under the four codes to make them fully enforceable across the country.
Code enforcement will be another transformative step—expanding worker protections, facilitating business operations, and fostering an ecosystem for workers.
Mandaviya also highlighted various provisions of the labor code such as mandatory appointment letter, free health check-up for workers aged 40 years and above, equal work, equal pay and equal opportunities for women while working in different shifts.
