The Code on Social Security, 2020 is an Act of the Parliament of India (Act No. 36 of 2020) that amends and consolidates the laws relating to social security. Its origin lies in the recommendation of the Second National Commission on Labour (2002) to simplify India's complex and fragmented labour legislation. The Code was introduced on September 19, 2020, and received Presidential assent on September 28, 2020, to replace multiple independent statutes with a single, unified framework.
The Code works by consolidating nine central social security laws, including the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. Its key mechanism is the formal recognition and inclusion of gig workers and platform workers for the first time in Indian labour law. The Code mandates the Central Government to establish a National Social Security Board to administer schemes for unorganized, gig, and platform workers. A significant provision is the requirement for aggregators to contribute between 1% and 2% of their annual turnover towards social security for gig workers, capped at 5% of the payment made to them. Furthermore, it makes fixed-term employees eligible for gratuity after completing just one year of continuous service, a reduction from the previous five-year requirement. The Code connects to the broader labour law reform effort, being one of the four new Labour Codes, alongside the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, and the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2020. The underlying benefits of schemes like EPF and ESIC remain largely similar but are now governed under the unified structure of the Code.