Labour Codes 2020 Practitioner: HR, Payroll & Compliance Certification
Master the four new Labour Codes that replaced 29 old laws. Written for people who actually restructure payroll, register unions, file returns, and defend inspections.
A working practitioner's programme on the four Labour Codes that came into force on 21 November 2025 and continue to roll out through 2026: 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. Every claim is locked to a section, rule, or Ministry clarification. Includes the operational shifts from the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 (notified 8 May 2026) and the Additional MoLE FAQs (16 March 2026) that most employers are only now catching up with.
What you will learn
- Map any old-law obligation (Factories Act, ID Act, PF Act, Bonus Act, Payment of Wages Act, Contract Labour Act and 23 others) to its equivalent Code section
- Restructure a CTC to comply with the 50% basic-wage rule under Section 2(y) of the Wages Code without eroding worker take-home
- Constitute a Grievance Redressal Committee, Works Committee, and negotiating union under the Industrial Relations Code correctly
- Determine gig and platform worker coverage under Section 114 of the Social Security Code, the 45-day registration deadline, and the 90-day / 120-day benefit-eligibility rules
- Register an establishment under the OSH Code and file the single unified annual return through the Shram Suvidha portal
- Compute layoff, retrenchment, and closure compensation using the correct Section 77 and Section 79 thresholds, including State-level derogations
- Apply the transition rules for gratuity, ESI wage threshold, and standing orders correctly
- Read a State labour rule notification and know which parts override the Central Rule and which do not
Prerequisites
- You should already know that the four Labour Codes exist and have processed at least one payroll or filed at least one return under the old regime
- Basic familiarity with how Indian statutes and their subordinate Rules interact is helpful but not required
- No specific legal qualification is required to take this course
Who this is for
- HR heads and HR business partners at companies of 50 or more employees
- Payroll managers, in-house and at outsourced payroll providers
- Labour lawyers and in-house counsel handling employment matters
- Company Secretaries handling employer-side compliance
- Compliance officers at manufacturing, IT and ITeS, retail, hospitality, healthcare, and platform businesses
- CFOs signing off on payroll changes triggered by the 50% wage rule
- HR consultants advising SMEs through the transition
- Founders of aggregator or platform businesses subject to Section 114
- What we collect: name, email, IP address (for security logging), and course progress.
- Why: to email you the one-click access link, deliver lessons, issue your certificate, and (with your consent) send course updates plus a Day-7 follow-up about dcomply.
- How long: kept until you unsubscribe or request erasure.
- Your rights under the DPDP Act 2023: access, correction, erasure, and grievance redressal. Write to dpo@dcomply.in to exercise any of them.
- Unsubscribe any time using the link in every email we send you.
Syllabus
8 modules, 40 lessons. Click any module to expand.
The four Codes came into force by two Gazette notifications (S.O. 5319(E) and S.O. 5322(E)) on 21 November 2025, repealing 29 central labour laws. This module tells you which of the old Acts is now which Code, how to read a Code alongside its Rules and State rules, and what the operational implications are of a young statute with no reported Supreme Court interpretation yet.
- 1. What actually changed on 21 November 2025 10 min
- 2. Reading a Code with its Rules and notifications 8 min
- 3. 29 to 4: mapping every repealed Act to its new Code 10 min
- 4. "Appropriate Government" and the State Rules mosaic 8 min
- 5. The practitioner reading list 6 min
The Wages Code applies to every employee in every establishment, regardless of wage ceiling. It introduces a universal minimum wage floor, national floor wage, prescribed wage-payment cycles, and a new statutory definition of "wages" in Section 2(y) that forces most Indian CTC structures to be re-cut. This module locks down the mechanics, including the March 2026 MoLE clarification that overtime allowance is included in the 50% floor computation.
- 1. Universal coverage and the national floor wage 8 min
- 2. Section 2(y): the definition that changed CTC in India 12 min
- 3. Timely payment, permissible deductions, and the deductions cap 7 min
- 4. Bonus under the Wages Code: eligibility, computation, disqualification 7 min
- 5. Penalties and the inspector-cum-facilitator regime 6 min
The IR Code raises operational thresholds, standing orders now apply from 300 workers under Section 28, layoff/retrenchment prior permission from 300 workers under Section 77, but adds new duties like the sole negotiating union procedure, Grievance Redressal Committee, and the 60-day strike notice period. This module walks you through both the new numbers and the new procedures.
- 1. Trade unions and the sole negotiating union 8 min
- 2. Standing orders under Section 28: threshold now 300 workers 7 min
- 3. Strikes, lock-outs, and the 60-day notice period 6 min
- 4. Layoff, retrenchment, and closure: the three-tier threshold 9 min
- 5. Dispute resolution: from conciliation to Tribunal to appeal 7 min
The SS Code brings together nine social-security laws, and Chapter IX introduces the first-ever statutory framework for gig and platform workers. This module covers the mainstream PF/ESI/gratuity mechanics, including the March 2026 clarification on gratuity computation for pre-21-November-2025 service, and then goes deep on Section 114, the aggregator obligation, and the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 notified on 8 May 2026.
- 1. PF and ESI under the Social Security Code 8 min
- 2. Gratuity: the sneaky pre-and-post 21 November transition rule 8 min
- 3. Maternity benefit: 26 weeks, crèche coordination, non-ESI establishments 6 min
- 4. Gig and platform workers under Section 114: the first statutory framework 10 min
- 5. Aggregator operations under the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 9 min
The OSH Code merges 13 laws including the Factories Act, Mines Act, Contract Labour Act and Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act. Central themes: single registration, single licence for contract labour, unified working-hour rules, leave that carries forward without limit for refused leave, women in night shifts with safeguards, and the crèche obligation that no longer depends on gender composition.
- 1. The OSH Code: thirteen laws merged into one framework 7 min
- 2. Working hours, overtime, and leave under the OSH Code 7 min
- 3. Crèche and welfare facilities: the gender-neutral crèche obligation 6 min
- 4. Contract labour: the single licence regime under Chapter XI 8 min
- 5. Inter-state migrant workers and industry-specific chapters 7 min
A Code is the frame; the Rules are the operational spec. Central Rules for each Code have been notified in staggered fashion, most recently the Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 on 8 May 2026. State Rules are moving separately. This module gives you a reading discipline for the current state of play, including how to handle a situation where your State has not yet notified rules on a specific Code section.
- 1. Central Rules: what has been notified, per Code 7 min
- 2. Tracking State Rules: a monthly discipline for a multi-state employer 6 min
- 3. The Shram Suvidha and e-Shram portals: your operational front door 6 min
- 4. The note-to-file discipline: documenting transitional positions 5 min
- 5. Building a multi-state Labour Code compliance calendar 6 min
This is the single most disruptive operational change in the Codes. Because of Section 2(y), if your allowances-heavy salary structure has (basic + DA + retaining) below 50% of remuneration, the excess is deemed wages, inflating PF, gratuity, and bonus liability. This module walks through a realistic ₹10 lakh annual CTC restructure end-to-end, including the March 2026 MoLE clarifications on what does and does not count, and how to communicate the take-home change to employees without triggering an industrial dispute.
- 1. Diagnosing a CTC template against Section 2(y) 8 min
- 2. End-to-end: restructuring a ₹10 lakh annual CTC 10 min
- 3. Communicating the payroll change to employees and unions 6 min
- 4. Payroll system changes and the audit trail 6 min
- 5. Timeline and phasing: a 90-day restructure plan 5 min
The Codes replace industry-by-industry inspections with a unified risk-based inspector-cum-facilitator regime, and consolidate returns through the Shram Suvidha portal and the eShram portal. This module gives you the end-to-end operational stack: what to file, where to file it, how to prepare for a facilitator visit, and the penalty exposure across all four Codes if you get it wrong.
- 1. E-registers, record formats, and retention 6 min
- 2. The unified annual return and quarterly filings 6 min
- 3. The inspector-cum-facilitator visit: preparation and response 7 min
- 4. Penalty ladders across the four Codes 6 min
- 5. Course close: what you know now and what to keep updated 4 min