The Centre enforced four labour codes, bringing sweeping changes to India’s labour framework
The codes formally recognize gig and platform workers for the first time under central law, extending social security
Aggregators must contribute a 1–2% welfare fee (capped at 5% of worker payouts) to a Social Security Fund
The Centre has enforced the four consolidated labour codes from Friday, bringing sweeping changes to India’s labour framework and, for the first time under central law. The codes formally recognise gig workers, platform workers and aggregators while creating dedicated social-security rules and funding mechanisms for them.
It requires aggregators to contribute toward worker welfare and introduces a portable, Aadhaar-linked Universal Account Number for gig and platform workers.
31 October 2025
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The four codes, 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), replace and rationalise 29 older labour laws and extend social-security coverage to previously unprotected categories, including gig and platform workers.
The Centre says the reforms modernise labour rules, expand protections and simplify compliance across states.
New Obligations for Aggregators
Under the social-security framework, aggregators will be required to contribute a welfare fee of about 1–2% of annual turnover, with a mechanism that also envisages a cap of up to 5% of the amounts paid or payable to workers, to finance a Social Security Fund for gig and platform workers.
The fund will be used to run central welfare schemes for these workers, and the National Social Security Board will advise, frame and monitor such programmes.
The Code provides for issuing an Aadhaar-linked Universal Account Number (UAN) to registered gig and platform workers, making welfare entitlements portable across states and accessible even when workers migrate.
Registration (by self-declaration and Aadhaar) will be mandatory for gig and platform workers aged 16 and above to access scheme benefits. The National Social Security Board will be responsible for oversight and review of fund utilisation.
How Will it Work?
Key operational elements include creation of a national Social Security Fund, an expanded National Social Security Board with aggregator and worker representation for sectoral schemes, mandatory digital registration, helplines and facilitation centres to aid enrolment, and caps on administrative expenses of welfare boards.
The Centre says these measures extend health, accident, maternity and old-age protections to gig workers previously outside formal social-security nets.
Several states have piloted or adopted similar regimes. Karnataka enacted the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025, which prescribes a platform welfare fee (generally 1–5% of payouts) and creates state welfare boards, while Telangana has approved a draft gig-workers bill that includes algorithm-transparency rules and a welfare fund financed partly by a 1–2% platform fee.
