Recent Developments

To improve compliance, catalyze job creation, and ensure ease of doing business while safeguarding the health, safety, and social security of workers in both the organized and unorganized sectors, the Central and State Governments have initiated various labor reforms.

Some of the Central Government’s labor reforms are highlighted below:

Legislative Initiatives

• The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, provides for a complete ban on employment of children below 14 years in any occupation or process. The Act continues in force as a standalone statute alongside the Labor Codes, which cross-refer to it in prohibiting the employment of children and restricting the deployment of adolescents in hazardous work.
• The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued the Special Economic Zones (5th Amendment) Rules, 2022 vide notification dated 8 December 2022 (SEZ Amendment Rules), under which certain permitted categories of employees of establishments within SEZs (Units) are allowed to work from home. These apply to employees of Units providing Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services, working from home or any place outside the SEZ, until December 31, 2027, pursuant to the Special Economic Zones (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2024 (G.S.R. 786(E) dated December 26, 2024), which extended the hybrid-working facility under Rule 43A of the SEZ Rules, 2006. Additionally, they also apply (subject to conditions) to employees of Units who are temporarily incapacitated, traveling, and working off-site that are also permitted to work from home.
• The Ministry of Labor and Employment, vide press release dated 3 April2023, announced the launch of the e-Shram portal, a national database for unorganized workers aged 16 to 59, interlinked with Aadhaar. The Ministry of Labor and Employment has taken several steps to increase registration on the e-Shram portal, such as providing a multi-channel registration facility to unorganized workers across the country. The Common Services Center, a special-purpose vehicle, along with its more than 400,000 village-level entrepreneurs, has been onboarded to provide registration facilities at the village level. In addition, the e-Shram portal has been integrated with the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) mobile application to provide on-the-go registration and updating facilities to unorganized workers.
• As of mid-2026, the e-Shram portal has registered over INR 310 million unorganized workers and has evolved into a "One Stop Solution" platform (launched on 21 October 2024) integrating various Central welfare schemes. A dedicated Aggregator Module, launched on 12 December 2024, facilitates the onboarding of platform aggregators and registration of gig and platform workers engaged by them. The Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 require aggregators to register gig and platform workers on the designated portal on an ongoing basis, with the Ministry of Labor & Employment directing aggregators to complete onboarding and API integration with the e-Shram portal by 21 June 2026. While the Code on Social Security, 2020 contemplates contributions by aggregators towards social security for gig and platform workers, the contribution rate is yet to be notified by the Central Government. Separately, Karnataka has become the first State to operationalize a statutory welfare framework for platform-based gig workers, including the levy of a notified welfare fee on aggregators under the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025.

Governance Reforms

• The Ministry has notified “Ease of Compliance to maintain Registers under various Labor Laws Rules, 2017” on 21 February 2017, which has, in effect, replaced the 56 Registers/Forms and 9 Central Labor Laws and Rules with 5 common Registers/Forms. This will save effort and costs and lessen the compliance burden on various establishments.
• With the notification of the Central Rules under the Labor Codes on 8 May 2026, consolidated electronic registers, wage slips and unified return formats have been prescribed for establishments within the central sphere, replacing the corresponding registers and returns under the repealed central labor enactments. The prescribed records may be maintained electronically and must be retained for a minimum period of five years. Since Maharashtra is yet to notify all of its corresponding State Rules under the Labor Codes, establishments falling within the State sphere should continue to comply with the applicable register and return requirements under the existing legal framework and transitional provisions until the relevant State Rules are brought into force.