Business & Economics
India Activates Four-Code Labour Overhaul, Repealing 29 Legacy Acts
Effective 21 Nov 2025, the Modi government brought into force four consolidated labour codes that replace 29 separate statutes, creating one digital registration-and-compliance regime for wages, industrial relations, social security and workplace safety.
Focusing Facts
- The new framework cuts paid-leave eligibility from 240 to 180 working days per calendar year for all employees.
- Gratuity is now payable to fixed-term employees after 12 months of service instead of the previous five-year minimum.
- Companies can now lay off staff without state permission until their workforce reaches 300, triple the earlier 100-employee threshold.
Context
India has not attempted a labour rewrite of this scale since the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947, which itself followed Britain’s 1946 Industrial Relations Act; both sought post-war order but ossified over decades. The 2025 codification mirrors the 1991 economic-liberalisation moment—shrinking paperwork, courting investment, and betting that easier hiring and firing will lure capital—yet it occurs in a vastly different world of platform gigs and AI-driven supply chains. By folding gig workers and night-shift women into statutory protection, New Delhi nods to the informal economy that swelled from 81 % of employment in 2000 to roughly 90 % today, but critics note that enforcement still lies with state labour inspectors whose capacity has hardly grown since the 1970s. On a 100-year arc, the move tests whether emerging economies can leapfrog the Fordist factory model straight to flexible, digitally tracked work without repeating the West’s century-long union-versus-capital battles—and whether social protection can keep pace when employment relationships fragment. The codes’ real legacy will hinge less on parliamentary text than on how India’s 28 states, often with opposing parties, write and police the subordinate rules in the 2030s.
Perspectives
Business-friendly and government-aligned media
Devdiscourse, SocialNews XYZ — Present the four new labour codes as a historic, efficiency-boosting overhaul that will formalise jobs, widen social security and make India’s labour market more attractive for investment. Echo official press releases and industry talking-points while giving little space to worker anxieties or enforcement gaps, reflecting incentives to court government sources and pro-business readership.
Trade-union and left-leaning outlets
Scroll.in — Describe the codes as “anti-worker” measures that erode collective bargaining, ease hiring-and-firing and amount to a deceptive, unilateral assault on labour rights. Leans on statements from central unions and opposition groups, foregrounding worst-case outcomes and framing the reform as corporate profiteering, with scant discussion of any new protections the codes add.
General-interest consumer sites highlighting both perks and pitfalls
Boldsky — Explain the practical changes—appointment letters, minimum wages, gig-worker cover—while also noting union fears over layoffs and weakened bargaining power, portraying the reform as positive but conditionally so. Positions itself as a service piece for workers, cherry-picking eye-catching benefits and criticisms alike; the balanced tone can mask limited original reporting and heavy reliance on secondary summaries.