Taxmann's New Labour Laws [Bare Act without Comments | AIBE] – All Four Labour Codes in Force | Statutory Text of the Codes on Wages, Social Security, Industrial Relations and Occupational Safety

New Labour Laws [Bare Act without Comments] by Taxmann for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) is the 2026 Edition of the four Labour Codes, printed in one volume of 383 pages. It is published for the AIBE-XXII (22) cycle, whose paper is set for 29th November 2026. On 21st November 2025 the four Codes came into force, and with them the repeal of 28 of the 29 Acts they replace. That date is on almost every page of this volume: 241 of the 252 footnotes read “Enforced with effect from 21-11-2025”, keyed by a superscript marker to the section above them. A reader does not have to take the commencement on trust or look it up; it is printed against 479 of the 480 sections, the one exception being section 104 of the Industrial Relations Code, which carries the amendment marker instead. The four Codes and what each of them took: Code on Wages 2019 (Act 29 of 2019, assented 8th August 2019)—9 Chapters, 69 sections. Section 69 repeals the Payment of Wages Act 1936, the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 Code on Social Security 2020 (Act 36 of 2020, assented 28th September 2020)—14 Chapters, 164 sections, 7 Schedules. Section 164 repeals nine Acts, from the Employee's Compensation Act 1923 to the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act 2008 Industrial Relations Code 2020 (Act 35 of 2020, assented 28th September 2020)—14 Chapters, 104 sections, 3 Schedules, printed pages 195 to 269. Section 104 repeals the Trade Unions Act 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 (Act 37 of 2020, assented 28th September 2020)—14 Chapters, 143 sections, 3 Schedules, printed pages 271 to 382. Section 143 repeals thirteen Acts, among them the Factories Act 1948, the Mines Act 1952 and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 Four Codes, 29 Acts, and the list is printed in the Codes themselves rather than supplied by an editor. Each of the four repeal sections names the Acts it takes, so the mapping from old statute to new can be read off the page. One of the twenty-nine did not go on that date, and the volume records the difference where a reader would otherwise not look for it. In section 164 of the Code on Social Security, eight of the nine repeal entries carry the 21st November 2025 footnote. The third, repealing the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952, carries a different one: “Enforced with effect from 3-5-2023.” So does the saving in section 164(2)(b), in so far as it relates to the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995. Two and a half years separate that repeal from the other twenty-eight, and the difference is printed as a footnote against the entry itself. Commencement was not a single event, and the volume records the exceptions as carefully as the rule. Four footnotes in the Code on Wages carry 18th December 2020, for the Central Advisory Board provisions; one in the Code on Social Security carries 3rd May 2021; six more carry 3rd May 2023, for the provisions relating to the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995. Everything else waited for 21st November 2025. One amendment has been made to any of the four Codes since they came into force, and it is here. Section 104(1) of the Industrial Relations Code was substituted by the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026 with retrospective effect from 21st November 2025. Where the original left the three old industrial-relations Acts to be repealed provision by provision under a notification, the substituted sub-section repeals them as a whole from the appointed date, and adds a new sub-section (1A) keeping the Tribunals and statutory authorities under them functioning until their replacements under the Code are working. The wording it replaced is reproduced in full beneath, and a dagger note records the instrument that did the repealing: Notification No. S.O. 465(E), dated 2nd February 2026. Printed without notes, comments, annotations or commentary, the volume is in the form the Bar Council of India permits candidates to carry into the AIBE examination hall. The statutory text is freely available; what this edition supplies is that permitted form, the commencement record and the apparatus that makes a section quick to reach. The AIBE paper sets 100 questions in 3 hours 30 minutes, a little over two minutes a question, and the head of Labour and Industrial Law carries 4 of the 100 marks. Finding the section is answered by a twenty-page section-wise contents and by a section or Schedule number in the running head on 379 of the 383 pages, the four exceptions being the Codes' own opening pages. The four Codes are numbered 1 to 69, 1 to 164, 1 to 104 and 1 to 143 with no gaps and no lettered sections anywhere, a statute book that has so far been amended once. There is no case law in the volume and no cross-reference of any kind. Of the 252 footnotes, 250 record a commencement, one records the 2026 amendment and one is the dagger note naming the repealing notification. No successor pointers, no citations, no editorial notes. This book is intended for the following audience: AIBE-XXII (22) Candidates—who sit the paper on 29th November 2026 and need the labour head in the form it now takes, a year after the Codes replaced the Acts the older material still teaches Labour-side and Management Practitioners—who advise on wages, industrial disputes, standing orders and retrenchment and need the Code provision rather than the repealed section it came from Human Resources and Compliance Teams—who work to the Code on Wages definition of wages, the gratuity provisions in Chapter V of the Social Security Code and the hours and leave provisions in Chapter VII of the Occupational Safety Code Company Secretaries and In-house Counsel—who need the registration, records and return provisions of all four Codes in one place, and the contractor-licensing Chapter of the Occupational Safety Code, with the commencement date against each Final-year Law Students—taking labour and industrial law, where the course now runs on four Codes rather than on the Acts they repealed Coaching Institutes and Law Libraries—stocking the Codes for the AIBE cycle alongside Taxmann's Labour and Industrial Laws volume, which carries nine of the Acts these Codes replaced The Present Publication is the 2026 Edition, carrying the amended and updated text of the four Labour Codes, published in Taxmann's Bare Act without Comments series for the AIBE, with the following noteworthy features: [Permitted Form] Printed without notes, comments, annotations or commentary, in the form the Bar Council of India permits candidates to carry into the examination hall [All Four Codes Complete] 51 Chapters, 480 section entries and 13 Schedules across 383 printed pages, each Code numbered straight through with no gaps and no lettered sections [The Commencement Date Against the Section Itself] 241 of the 252 footnotes read “Enforced with effect from 21-11-2025”, keyed by a superscript marker to 479 of the 480 sections [The Earlier Tranches Recorded Too] 18th December 2020 for the Central Advisory Board provisions of the Code on Wages, 3rd May 2021 and 3rd May 2023 for provisions of the Code on Social Security, the last of them the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 [29 Repeals Named in the Statute] Section 69 of the Code on Wages, section 164 of the Code on Social Security, section 104 of the Industrial Relations Code and section 143 of the Occupational Safety Code list the four, nine, three and thirteen Acts they repeal, in the Codes' own words [The One Repeal That Is Not Dated 2025] The entry repealing the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 is footnoted “Enforced with effect from 3-5-2023”, as is the saving for the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995, two and a half years ahead of the other twenty-eight [The 2026 Amendment with Its Prior Text] Section 104(1) of the Industrial Relations Code as substituted by the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act 2026 with retrospective effect from 21st November 2025, the superseded sub-section printed beneath it in full [The Repealing Notification Identified] A dagger note giving Notification No. S.O. 465(E), dated 2nd February 2026, as the instrument that repealed the three industrial-relations Acts with effect from 21st November 2025 [No Case Law, No Cross-references] Of the 252 footnotes, 250 record a commencement, one the 2026 amendment and one the repealing notification; the volume carries no citations, no successor pointers and no editorial notes [Section-wise Contents] A twenty-page contents listing every section entry and Schedule by number, marginal heading and page, under its Chapter and its Code [Running Heads] A section or Schedule number in the running head on 379 of the 383 pages, so a reference given as a section number is found by turning rather than by reading The structure of the book is as follows: The volume opens with a twenty-page section-wise contents covering all four Codes, then takes them in turn Each Code opens with its Act number and long title, the year of the Republic in which Parliament enacted it, and a starred note giving the date it received assent The Code on Wages runs Chapters I to IX: Preliminary, Minimum Wages, Payment of Wages, Payment of Bonus, Advisory Board, Payment of Dues, Claims and Audit, Inspector-cum-Facilitator, Offences and Penalties, and Miscellaneous The Code on Social Security runs Chapters I to XIV, covering the Social Security Organisations, Employees' Provident Fund, Employees State Insurance Corporation, Gratuity, Maternity Benefit, Employee's Compensation, the building and other construction workers' cess, and social security for unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers, with seven Schedules The Industrial Relations Code runs Chapters I to XIV, from Bi-partite Forums, Trade Unions and Standing Orders through Notice of Change, Voluntary Reference to Arbitration, the Mechanism for Resolution of Industrial Disputes, Strikes and Lock-outs, Lay-off, Retrenchment and Closure, the Worker Re-skilling Fund and Unfair Labour Practices, to Offences and Penalties, with three Schedules The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code runs Chapters I to XIV, from Registration and the Duties of Employer and Employees through Occupational Safety and Health, Welfare Provisions, Hours of Work and Annual Leave with Wages, Registers and Returns, Inspector-cum-Facilitators, the special provisions on the employment of women and on contract labour and inter-State migrant workers, and the Social Security Fund, to Offences and Penalties, with three Schedules Sections run under their marginal headings, with the superscript commencement marker set immediately before the section number Footnotes sit at the foot of the page, numbered afresh on each page rather than in a running series Pagination is continuous across the four Codes, from 1 to 383, and the text ends with the Third Schedule to the Occupational Safety Code Read more