Labour and Industrial Law Notes for LLB Students

India’s labour law framework was consolidated into four Labour Codes between 2019-2020, which came into force from 21 November 2025. These notes cover the transition and the core older-era doctrines still examined alongside it.

The Four Labour Codes

The Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 together replace 29 central labour statutes, including the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Factories Act, 1948, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, and the Employees’ Provident Funds Act, 1952.

Industrial Disputes and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020

“Industrial dispute” (Section 2(p), IR Code; earlier Section 2(k), Industrial Disputes Act) covers disputes between employers and workmen connected with employment terms. Dispute resolution mechanisms — works committees, conciliation officers, Industrial Tribunals, and the National Industrial Tribunal — are retained with modified procedure under the new Code, alongside a stricter fixed-term employment and re-skilling fund framework.

Wages, Bonus and Social Security

The Code on Wages, 2019 universalises minimum wage and timely payment of wages across all employment (not just scheduled employment as before), and retains the bonus framework from the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 (8.33% minimum, 20% maximum of wages, subject to allocable surplus). The Code on Social Security, 2020 extends EPF, ESI and gratuity coverage, for the first time explicitly to gig and platform workers (Section 2(35), 2(61)).

Trade Unions

Registration and regulation of trade unions, earlier under the Trade Unions Act, 1926, now sits within the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which also introduces statutory recognition of a “negotiating union/council” for collective bargaining where a union has 51%+ membership.

Standing Orders and Working Conditions

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (replacing the Factories Act, 1948, Contract Labour Act, 1970 and others) extends the requirement for standing orders (governing conditions of employment) to establishments with 300+ workers (up from 100 under the earlier Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946).

Key exam questions to prepare

• Name the four Labour Codes and the statutes each replaces.
• Dispute resolution machinery under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.
• How does the Code on Social Security, 2020 extend coverage to gig workers?

More: all LL.B. subject notes