Labour Codes with Central Rules COMBO [Bare Acts with Section Notes | July 2026 Edition] – Code on Wages | IR | Social Security | OSHWC | 4 Books—with Case Laws | Comparative Study | Others By Taxmann’s Editorial Board

Labour Codes with Central Rules COMBO [Bare Acts with Section Notes | July 2026 Edition] by Taxmann is the fully consolidated, post-enforcement Bare Act set covering the four Labour Codes that, with effect from 21^st November 2025, replaced India’s legacy labour-law regime in its entirety. The Codes—the Code on Wages 2019 [Act No. 29 of 2019], the Industrial Relations Code 2020 [Act No. 35 of 2020], the Code on Social Security 2020 [Act No. 36 of 2020], and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 [Act No. 37 of 2020]—between them subsume twenty-nine foundational labour statutes ranging from the Employee’s Compensation Act 1923 and the Trade Unions Act 1926 to the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 and the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act 2008, reconstituting them into a single legislative architecture for wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions.

The COMBO’s editorial spine is its clause-level portability bridge. Every section of every Code carries a Section Note identifying the corresponding provision in the repealed Act, together with the relevant Case Law reproduced beneath the section—allowing more than a century of accumulated jurisprudence to be ported into the new Code-based architecture without consulting a separate volume. Each volume is rounded out by the prescribed Schedules, Forms, Appendices, Schemes and Model Standing Orders, a front-placed Comparative Study, two-way (and, for the Code on Wages, five-way) cross-reference Tables, a Subject Index, the full notification trail, seven sets of FAQs on the Four Labour Codes, and a practitioner-oriented Compliance Handbook—making it the complete, application-ready reference set for the post-enforcement phase.

What distinguishes this July 2026 Edition is that the subordinate and administrative layer of the regime is now complete and is carried in full. All four sets of Central Rules 2026 are reproduced as finally notified—the Wages, Industrial Relations and OSHWC Rules of 8th May 2026 [G.S.R. 343(E), G.S.R. 342(E) and G.S.R. 345(E) respectively] together with the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026—cumulatively superseding more than forty sets of erstwhile rules and schemes, the earliest dating to 1937. This is the first Edition to carry Corrigendum G.S.R. 629(E) of 15^th July 2026, by which the short title of the Wages Rules stands substituted so that rule 1(1) now reads the Wages (Central) Rules 2026. Volume III carries a new Division Four reproducing the three EPFO Schemes notified on 29^th June 2026—the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme 2026, the Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026, and the Employees’ Pension Scheme 2026. Volume II incorporates the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026, which substituted sub-sections (1) and (1A) of section 104 with retrospective effect from 21^st November 2025, the pre-amendment text being preserved in the footnotes. The notification trail has been expanded correspondingly. The law is stated as amended and updated till 20^th July 2026 in the Wages, Industrial Relations and OSHWC volumes, and as on 1^st July 2026 in the Social Security volume.

The Combo is intended for users who apply, interpret, administer, adjudicate, audit, or transition into the Four Labour Codes regime, including:

• Labour & Employment Law Practitioners and Senior Counsel advising across wage, industrial-relations, social-security, and OSH-WC matters
• Corporate HR, IR, Payroll, and Compliance Heads responsible for end-to-end labour-code compliance under the Central Government sphere
• Employers, Occupiers, Factory Managers, Mine Owners and Agents, Plantation Employers, Principal Employers, Contractors, and Aggregators
• In-house Counsel, Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, and Cost Accountants conducting labour-code due diligence, statutory audits, contribution reconciliation, and compliance reviews
• Inspectors-cum-Facilitators, Labour Commissioners, Chief Inspectors, Welfare Commissioners, EPFO and ESIC Officers, and Adjudicatory Authorities (Industrial Tribunals, the National Industrial Tribunal, the Employees’ Insurance Court, Competent Authorities, and Appellate Authorities)
• Trade Unions, Office-Bearers, and Worker Representatives interpreting collective rights, recognition mechanisms, and statutory entitlements
• Trustees and Administrators of Exempted Establishments, BOCW Welfare Board Officials, and Cess Functionaries working to the exemption, board-of-trustees and return-filing paragraphs of the three EPFO Schemes 2026
• Law Students, Academicians, and Policy Researchers studying India’s transition from the legacy labour-law regime to the Code-based framework

The Present Publication is the July 2026 Edition, authored/edited by Taxmann’s Editorial Board, with the following noteworthy features:

• [What’s New in this July 2026 Edition] This Edition completes the statutory ecosystem that the previous Edition could only anticipate, and is updated across all four volumes to carry:
  • Finally notified Central Rules 2026 in every volume—the Code on Wages (Central) Rules 2026 [G.S.R. 343(E), 8-5-2026] with 54 Rules across 8 Chapters; the Industrial Relations (Central) Rules 2026 [G.S.R. 342(E), 8-5-2026] with 50 Rules across 13 Chapters; the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 with Forms I to XXX; and the OSHWC (Central) Rules 2026 [G.S.R. 345(E), 8-5-2026] with 186 Rules across 14 Chapters, 7 Annexures and 27 statutory Forms—cumulatively superseding more than forty sets of erstwhile rules and schemes, the earliest dating to 1937
  • Corrigendum G.S.R. 629(E), dated 15-7-2026—carried here for the first time and footnoted at the very rule it affects, by which the short title of the Wages Rules stands substituted so that rule 1(1) now reads the Wages (Central) Rules 2026, five days before the cut-off
  • A new Division Four in Volume III—the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme 2026, the Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026, and the Employees’ Pension Scheme 2026, notified on 29-6-2026 and each reproduced in full with its notification particulars and the scheme it supersedes stated at the head
  • The Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026—sub-sections (1) and (1A) of section 104 substituted with retrospective effect from 21-11-2025, the pre-amendment text preserved in the footnotes, together with the Removal of Difficulties (Amendment) Order 2026, which from 2-2-2026 extended continuity to all existing statutory authorities under the three repealed Acts
  • A substantially expanded notification and clarification record—ninety-seven notifications across the Wages, Social Security and OSHWC volumes together with the complete Industrial Relations record to 11-6-2026, including the officer, authority and territorial-jurisdiction tables that answer the question the post-enforcement regime raises daily: who is my authority?
• [What Sets this Combo Apart] This is the only Bare Act set on the four Labour Codes that combines all five of the following in a single bundle:
  • Section Notes and Case Laws beneath every section—competing bare-act compilations carry one or the other; this Combo carries both, immediately beneath each statutory provision, in all four volumes
  • Finally notified Central Rules 2026 in every volume—54, 50 and 186 Rules respectively, plus the Social Security Rules with Forms I to XXX
  • Front-placed Comparative Study in every volume—a subject-wise and clause-wise comparison between each Code and its repealed Acts, identifying retained provisions, substantive departures, rationalised thresholds, and consciously omitted concepts
  • Two-way (Five-way for Code on Wages) Cross-reference Tables—Code-to-repealed-Acts and Acts-to-Code, in both directions, in every volume—enabling clause-level lookup without consulting a separate concordance
  • Compliance Handbook for Employers spanning all four Codes—converting the full Code architecture into operational checklists across wage payment, working hours, registers and records, gender-equal treatment, occupational safety, social-security contributions, and statutory deadlines
  • Underpinning all five, the Combo’s organising premise is statutory portability—every section of every Code is mapped back to its provenance in the repealed Acts, allowing the jurisprudence of twenty-nine legacy statutes (in some instances spanning more than a century of accumulated precedent) to be ported into the Code-based regime at the clause level
• [Section Notes–Core USP] Provision-by-provision annotations are placed immediately beneath each section, identifying the corresponding clause of the repealed Act, flagging consolidated, modified, or newly introduced material, and turning each Bare Act into a self-contained transition and portability bridge between the legacy regime and the new Code at the clause level. In the Code on Wages volume, the fuller notes open with a Provisions of section … in a nutshell summary before unpacking the provision point by point; the Code on Social Security volume carries 224 corresponding-provision notes, with all 91 definitions individually annotated—68 mapped to a repealed provision and 23 expressly unmapped, so that expressions such as aggregator, gig worker, platform worker, fixed-term employment and wage ceiling are visibly flagged as areas in which no legacy precedent exists
• [Case Laws Beneath the Section] Relevant judicial precedents reproduced under each section to confirm standard interpretations carried forward from the repealed Acts, enable precedent verification, and provide authoritative reference for adjudication, contribution disputes, licensing challenges, prosecutions, and benefit determination—including Manganese Ore v. Chandi Lal (1990) 77 FJR 420 (SC) on the payment of wages in kind, and a consolidated block of twelve Supreme Court authorities digested under the gratuity provision and arranged under three heads
• [Enforcement Footnotes] Footnotes recording the date from which each provision has been brought into force, together with the enabling notification—some fifty in the Code on Wages volume, and a footnote on every section of the Code on Social Security volume, where commencement was staged across 2021, 2023 and 2025 with a corrigendum amending the principal commencement notification—so that the reader is never in doubt as to what is operative today
• [Front-Placed Comparative Study] A subject-wise and clause-wise comparison between each Code and its repealed Acts—identifying retained provisions, substantive departures, rationalised thresholds (universal applicability, the 50% cap on deductions in place of 75%, abolition of the working-day stipulation, unified registration, harmonised definitions of factory, mine, employee, worker, contractor and principal employer, expanded gig and platform-worker coverage, aggregator-funded social security, gender-neutral night-shift provisions, the Inspector-cum-Facilitator architecture), and consciously omitted concepts (including deductions for LIC premium, Post Office insurance, and Fidelity Guarantee Bond)
• [Sectional Cross-Reference Tables] Two-way tables (five-way for the Code on Wages) aligning every Code section with the corresponding provision of each repealed Act, plus reverse-direction tables—five tables in Volume I, ten in Volume III, fourteen in Volume IV, and forward and reverse tables across the three repealed Acts in Volume II—enabling lookup in either direction without consulting separate sources. In the Code on Social Security volume, provisions not carried forward are expressly marked as omitted, so that a search yielding no result is affirmatively answered rather than left inconclusive
• [Central Rules 2026 – Final Notified Text] Each Code’s operative procedural framework reproduced in full—54 Rules across 8 Chapters with Forms I to IX and Appendices A to D under the Code on Wages (superseding 17 sets of erstwhile rules); 50 Rules across 13 Chapters with the Schedule of prescribed forms under the Industrial Relations Code; the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 with Forms I to XXX (superseding 12 earlier sets); and 186 Rules across 14 Chapters with 7 Annexures and 27 statutory Forms under the OSHWC Code (superseding 15 sets of central rules)—covering registration, licensing, contribution, returns, inspection, working hours, weekly rest and night shifts, recovery, computation of gross profits and allocable surplus, benefit administration, and prescribed Form provisions
• [Special Statutory Instruments] Code-specific instruments reproduced in full—prescribed Forms I to IX (Employee Register, Register of Wages, Wage Slip, Nomination Form, Attendance Register-cum-Muster Roll) together with the four working schedules on bonus at Appendices A to D under the Code on Wages; the Model Standing Orders 2026 for the Mining, Manufacturing and Service sectors [S.O. 2312(E), 8-5-2026] and the Removal of Difficulties Order 2025, as amended in 2026, under the Industrial Relations Code; the Other Beneficiaries and Members of their Families Medical Facilities Scheme 2026, the three EPFO Schemes 2026 and the Seven Schedules (including the nine-category Classification of Aggregators) under the Code on Social Security; and the Three Schedules (including the list of notifiable occupational diseases) under the OSHWC Code
• [Notification and Clarification Trail] The complete commencement, authority and rate record in one place—ninety-seven notifications across the Wages, Social Security and OSHWC volumes together with the full Industrial Relations record, reproduced as notified so that a rate, an authority or a territorial jurisdiction may be cited to its S.O. or G.S.R. rather than to a secondary source. These include the enforcement notifications of 21-11-2025; the repeal notification for the subsumed industrial-relations Acts [S.O. 465(E), 2-2-2026]; the ₹18,000 supervisory wage-ceiling notification [S.O. 454(E), 30-1-2026]; the series of 12-5-2026 [S.O. 2450(E) to S.O. 2458(E)] notifying officers, authorities and territorial jurisdictions under sections 4, 7, 31, 39, 45, 49, 51, 53 and 56 of the Code on Wages; the Industrial Relations delegation notifications to 11-6-2026, including the power to appoint Verification Officers [S.O. 2996(E)]; the contribution, cess, interest and threshold rates in force, including those of 1-7-2026; and, under the OSHWC Code, forty-seven notifications—forty-three of them issued on or after 13-5-2026—carrying region-wise, zone-wise and port-wise jurisdiction tables, and the July 2026 block under section 72 [G.S.R. 571(E) to G.S.R. 626(E), 1-7-2026 to 10-7-2026] governing mine rescue stations, rescue teams, breathing apparatus and vocational training centres
• [Amendment Act and Continuity of Forum] Volume II incorporates the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026—sub-sections (1) and (1A) of section 104, substituted with retrospective effect from 21-11-2025, with the pre-amendment text preserved in the footnotes—together with the Removal of Difficulties Order 2025 [S.O. 5683(E), 8-12-2025] as extended by the Removal of Difficulties (Amendment) Order 2026 with effect from 2-2-2026: the two instruments that together govern which forum hears a matter during the transition
• [Cross-Code Reference Material in Every Volume] Seven sets of official FAQs spanning all four Labour Codes—including the Government’s FAQ on the OSHWC Code as on 13-3-2026 in query-and-clarification format, twenty-six FAQs on the Social Security Rules grouped under eight subject heads, and the Additional FAQs as on 16-3-2026, which settle live practical questions such as whether overtime forms part of the 50 per cent wage calculation (it does), how gratuity is to be computed, and the date from which the revised definition of wages operates—together with the Compliance Handbook for Employers (Central Government Sphere) in seven Chapters with five Annexures, closing with a Summary of Action Points sorted into Foundational, Monthly, Periodical/Annual and Event-Based compliance. This cross-Code material is reproduced in each of the four volumes, so the reference travels with whichever volume the practitioner is consulting—bench, audit room, factory floor, or tribunal
• [Subject Index] A comprehensive alphabetical index in each volume, navigable by concept, defined expression, benefit head, sector, or compliance area
• [Statement of Objects, Notes on Clauses, and Appendix] Each volume reproduces the original Statement of Objects and Reasons, section-wise Notes on Clauses, and an Appendix of other Central Acts referred to within the Code—closing the legislative-history loop and eliminating the need to consult separate volumes
• [Authoritative Bare Act Presentation] Maintains Taxmann’s Bare Act editorial integrity—pure statutory text supported by Section Notes, Case Laws, and comparative context, without interpretational dilution

The Combo is organised as four standalone volumes, each following a parallel Division architecture for cross-volume navigability—three Divisions in Volumes I, II and IV, and four in Volume III, which carries an additional Division for the Schemes framed under the Code on Social Security:

• Volume I | Code on Wages 2019 with the Wages (Central) Rules 2026
  • Division One — Comparative Study; five-way sectional Tables (Code v Payment of Wages Act 1936, Minimum Wages Act 1948, Payment of Bonus Act 1965, and Equal Remuneration Act 1976, plus the four reverse-direction tables); Arrangement of Sections; Text of the Code—69 sections across 9 Chapters—with Section Notes, Corresponding Provisions, Case Laws, enforcement footnotes and a dedicated Introduction to Chapter III; Subject Index; Statement of Objects and Reasons; Notes on Clauses; Appendix of External Provisions (ten Central Acts)
  • Division Two — Code on Wages (Central) Rules 2026—Chapters I to VIII, Rules 1 to 54, with Corrigendum G.S.R. 629(E) of 15-7-2026 footnoted at rule 1(1); Forms I to IX (Employee Register, Register of Wages, Wage Slip, Nomination Form, Attendance Register-cum-Muster Roll, and connected formats); Appendices A to D on set on and set off of allocable surplus, computation of gross profits for banking companies and for other employers, and deduction of further sums by category of employer
  • Division Three — Notifications—fifteen in all across twelve section-wise entries, covering enforcement, partial enforcement, the ₹18,000 supervisory wage-ceiling notification and the 12-5-2026 jurisdiction series; seven sets of FAQs on the Four Labour Codes; Compliance Handbook for Employers with Annexures 1 to 5
• Volume II | Industrial Relations Code 2020 with Central Rules 2026
  • Division One — Comparative Study; two-way sectional Tables (Code v Trade Unions Act 1926, Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946, and Industrial Disputes Act 1947, and the reverse); Arrangement of Sections; Text of the Code—104 sections across 14 Chapters with the First, Second and Third Schedules, as amended by the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026—with Section Notes, Corresponding Provision notes and Case Laws; Subject Index; the Industrial Relations Code (Removal of Difficulties) Order 2025, as amended in 2026; Statement of Objects and Reasons; Notes on Clauses; Appendix of External Provisions
  • Division Two — Industrial Relations (Central) Rules 2026—50 Rules across 13 Chapters with the Schedule of prescribed forms; and the Model Standing Orders 2026 (Schedule A—Mining Sector; Schedule B—Manufacturing Sector; Schedule C—Service Sector)
  • Division Three — Notifications—current to 11-6-2026, covering enforcement, repeal of the subsumed Acts [S.O. 465(E), 2-2-2026], appropriate Government designations, appointment of Certifying Officers, Appellate Authorities and Conciliation Officers, the Worker Re-skilling Fund, compounding of offences, delegation of powers, and delegation of the power to appoint Verification Officers; FAQs on the Four Labour Codes; Compliance Handbook for Employers
• Volume III | Code on Social Security 2020 with Central Rules 2026 and the EPFO Schemes 2026
  • Division One — Comparative Study; two-way sectional Tables (Code v each of the nine repealed Acts, and the reverse for each—ten tables in all); Arrangement of Sections; Text of the Code with 224 Section Notes and Case Laws, including twelve Supreme Court authorities digested under the gratuity provision; First to Seventh Schedules (including the nine-category Classification of Aggregators); Subject Index; Statement of Objects and Reasons; Notes on Clauses; Appendix of External Provisions (some twenty Central Acts)
  • Division Two — Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 with Forms I to XXX; Other Beneficiaries and Members of their Families Medical Facilities Scheme 2026
  • Division Three — Notifications—thirty-five in sequence, including the contribution-rate notifications of 1-7-2026; FAQs on the Four Labour Codes, including twenty-six on the Social Security Rules under eight subject heads; Compliance Handbook for Employers
  • Division Four — Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme 2026; Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026; Employees’ Pension Scheme 2026—notified on 29-6-2026 and reproduced in full, each with its notification particulars and the scheme it supersedes stated at the head
• Volume IV | Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 with Central Rules 2026
  • Division One — Comparative Study; two-way sectional Tables (Code v each of the thirteen repealed Acts, and the reverse for each—fourteen tables in all); Arrangement of Sections; Text of the Code with Section Notes and Case Laws; First to Third Schedules (including the list of notifiable occupational diseases); Subject Index; Statement of Objects and Reasons; Notes on Clauses; Appendix of External Provisions
  • Division Two — Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules 2026—186 Rules across 14 Chapters, with 7 Annexures and 27 statutory Forms
  • Division Three — Notifications—forty-seven arranged section-wise, of which forty-three were issued on or after 13-5-2026, with complete region-wise, zone-wise and port-wise jurisdiction tables and the July 2026 block under section 72; seven sets of FAQs and Clarifications; Compliance Handbook for Employers