Which one of the following Labour Codes notified by the Government of India incorporated various provisions of the Central Labour Acts such as the Factories Act, 1948 and Plantations Labour Act, 1951?
- (a)The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020
- (b)The Industrial Relations Code, 2020
- (c)The Code on Wages, 2019
- (d)The Code on Social Security, 2020
Correct — A, The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. Of the four labour Codes, this is the one that swallowed the establishment-and-workplace statutes — thirteen central Acts in all, headed by the Factories Act, 1948 and the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and going on to the Mines Act, 1952, the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, the Beedi and Cigar Workers Act, 1966, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, the Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986 and the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, along with the two Working Journalists Acts, the Sales Promotion Employees Act and the Cine Workers Act. The common thread is the physical workplace — who may be employed there, for how many hours, under what safety, health and welfare conditions, and with what registration and licensing. The Code was passed by both Houses in September 2020 and received assent on 28 September 2020.
- (b)The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 — The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 covers the collective side of employment, not workplace conditions. It merges three Acts — the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — dealing with unions, standing orders, strikes, lay-offs, retrenchment and closure.
- (c)The Code on Wages, 2019 — The Code on Wages, 2019, the first of the four to be enacted, merges four wage statutes: the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. It is about what a worker is paid, not about the conditions of the factory or plantation in which the work is done.
- (d)The Code on Social Security, 2020 — The Code on Social Security, 2020 consolidates the benefit statutes — provident fund, employees' state insurance, gratuity, maternity benefit, employees' compensation, the construction workers' cess and unorganised workers' social security. It provides for what happens on retirement, sickness, injury or childbirth, not for how a factory or plantation is to be run.
Between 2019 and 2020 Parliament folded twenty-nine central labour laws into four Codes. The division is thematic: the Code on Wages, 2019 governs pay, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 governs unions and disputes, the Code on Social Security, 2020 governs benefits, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 governs the workplace itself — registration of establishments, hours and leave, women's employment, contract labour, migrant workers and safety standards.
The reliable way through this family of questions is to ask what kind of law the named Act is, not to memorise all twenty-nine. The Factories Act, 1948 and the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 are both establishment statutes: one sets the rules for a factory, the other for a plantation, and each deals with hours, welfare amenities, health and safety on that premises. Anything of that shape goes into the safety and working conditions Code. Wage statutes go to the wage Code, union and dispute statutes to the industrial relations Code, benefit statutes to the social security Code. One present-day note the exam could not have carried: the four Codes were only brought into force on 21 November 2025, more than three years after this paper was written, so through 2022 the older Acts were still the operative law.
- Four Codes replaced twenty-nine central labour laws: Wages (2019), Industrial Relations (2020), Social Security (2020), and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (2020).
- The safety and working conditions Code subsumes thirteen Acts, the largest count of the four.
- The Code on Wages, 2019 subsumes four Acts — Payment of Wages 1936, Minimum Wages 1948, Payment of Bonus 1965 and Equal Remuneration 1976.
- The Industrial Relations Code subsumes three — Trade Unions 1926, Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) 1946 and Industrial Disputes 1947.
- All three 2020 Codes received Presidential assent on 28 September 2020; the four Codes were brought into force on 21 November 2025.
Sort the named Act by what it regulates and the Code follows without memorising the full list of twenty-nine.
- Assuming the Factories Act went to the industrial relations Code because both sound like they are about industry; the Factories Act is a workplace statute.
- Placing the Contract Labour Act in the social security Code; it is in the safety and working conditions Code.
- Treating the year in a Code's title as the year it came into force — three of the four are dated 2020 but none of them operated until November 2025.
As a which-Code-subsumed-which-Act item, as a count question on how many Acts each Code replaced, or as a statements item on the Codes' provisions.
With reference to casual workers employed in India, consider the following statements: 1. All casual workers are entitled for Employees Provident Fund coverage. 2. All casual workers are entitled for regular working hours and overtime payment. 3. The government can by a notification specify that an establishment or industry shall pay wages only through its bank account. Which of the above statements are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
The same statutory family read from the worker's end. Working hours and overtime come from the establishment statutes now folded into the safety and working conditions Code, provident fund coverage from the benefit statutes now in the social security Code, and the mode of wage payment from the wage statutes now in the Code on Wages — three rules, three different Codes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Trade Unions Act, 1926 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 have been subsumed into which one of the following?
- (a)The Code on Wages, 2019
- (b)The Industrial Relations Code, 2020
- (c)The Code on Social Security, 2020
- (d)The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020
Answer(b) The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 — it merges the Trade Unions Act 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act 1947.
- practice — not a real PYQ
How many central labour laws were consolidated into the four labour Codes?
- (a)Seventeen
- (b)Twenty-four
- (c)Twenty-nine
- (d)Forty-four
Answer(c) Twenty-nine — four in the Code on Wages, three in the Industrial Relations Code, nine in the Code on Social Security and thirteen in the Occupational Safety Code.