Your workforce sits under a rulebook that changed mid-year — four labour codes replacing twenty-nine central Acts, central rules notified in May 2026, and every state moving at its own speed. Meanwhile the registrations, registers, returns and renewals that were always due are still due.
Transparian runs that entire map: registrations and licences, statutory registers, wage and benefit obligations, periodic returns, inspections and notices, and the labour code transition alongside it. You keep sign-off and authority. We keep the record complete on the day someone asks for it.
The four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025, consolidating twenty-nine central labour laws into four. The Ministry notified the final central rules in May 2026. But labour is a concurrent subject: until a state notifies its own rules, employers there follow the central rules alongside the legacy state Act. That is why labour codes compliance looks different in Karnataka than it does in Maharashtra.
| Central Rules | Maharashtra Rules | What Applies Today | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code on Wages, 2019 | notified | notified | Code + central + state rules |
| Industrial Relations Code, 2020 | notified | notified | Code + central + state rules |
| OSH & Working Conditions Code, 2020 | notified | draft | Code + central + legacy state Act |
| Code on Social Security, 2020 | notified | draft | Code + central + legacy state Act |
Basic pay and DA must be at least half of total remuneration, which changes how PF, gratuity, bonus and leave encashment are computed. This is live now — it is not waiting on state rules.
For every employee, and among the first things an inspector asks for.
Shops and establishment compliance, Professional Tax and Labour Welfare Fund continue under state law, now inside the code framework. Running one and not the other is where most establishments are exposed today.
The question most compliance pages avoid. Applicability turns on your type of establishment, your state, and your headcount.
| Trigger | Obligation | Registration |
|---|---|---|
| First employee | Shops and establishment compliance (Maharashtra: registration at 10+, intimation below) | State S&E registration |
| 10+ with power / 20+ without | Factories Act — safety, welfare, working conditions | Factory licence, annual renewal |
| 10+ employees | ESIC (20 in some states, including shops in Maharashtra); gratuity liability; POSH Internal Committee | ESIC registration |
| 20+ employees | EPF coverage; Payment of Bonus Act | EPFO registration, monthly ECR |
| 20+ contract workers (50 in some states) | CLRA compliance — principal employer registration, contractor licence | CLRA registration + licence |
| 10+ construction workers | BOCW obligations and cess | BOCW registration |
| 250+ / 500+ workers | Safety committee / safety officer under the OSH Code | — |
| 300+ workers | Certified Standing Orders under the IR Code | Certification by authority |
| All sizes | Minimum wages compliance, Payment of Wages Act compliance, Professional Tax, Labour Welfare Fund | State-specific |
The OSH Code replaces several separate registrations with a single establishment registration, due within sixty days of applicability. The Standing Orders threshold has moved from 100 workers to 300. If you are unsure where you sit on this table, that is what our labour law compliance audit resolves first.
Shops and establishment, factory, CLRA, contractor licences, BOCW and the single OSH registration — obtained, renewed before they lapse, and amended when your headcount, premises, occupier or manager changes.
Muster roll, wage register, register of workers, overtime, leave, fines and deductions — maintained, updated after every amendment, and digitised so retrieval takes minutes rather than days.
Minimum wages compliance tracked through every state revision and carried into your registers. Payment of Wages Act compliance, bonus, gratuity and equal remuneration computed correctly — including modelling the new wage definition's impact before it hits payroll.
Half-yearly and annual returns, integrated returns where permitted, bonus and gratuity filings, POSH annual report, monthly remittances. Drafted, sent for your sign-off, filed, acknowledgement recorded against the obligation.
Your file kept inspection-ready as a standing condition. When a notice arrives we prepare the response, represent you before the authority, and take the matter to documented closure.
Gap assessment against all four codes, wage restructuring, appointment letters and contracts reissued, Standing Orders reviewed, re-registration under the OSH Code, and a state-by-state watch on rules as they are notified.
PF and ESI work runs through our PF & ESIC consultant team, contractor obligations through vendor compliance services, and plant-level obligations through factory compliance services.
It’s rarely dramatic. A licence not renewed in one state. A wage revision that never reached the register. A half-yearly return filed three weeks late. Nothing happens for a long time, and then an inspection, a customer’s vendor audit or investor diligence brings all of it up at once.
By that point the penalty is usually the smaller cost. The larger one is six weeks of your HR and finance teams reconstructing three years of records under a deadline someone else set.
Note the pattern: liability under most labour statutes attaches to named individuals — occupier, manager, principal employer — not only to the company.
| In-House Executive | Outsourced to Transparian | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Full-time salary, plus cover | Fixed engagement fee |
| Multi-state coverage | One or two states well | Every state you operate in |
| Amendment tracking | Depends on one person reading gazettes | Tracked and applied to your registers |
| Inspections and notices | Often a first exposure | Routine, with representation |
| Continuity | Leaves when the person resigns | Documented process and handover |
| Cost of an error | Absorbed by you | Carried by us, contractually |
In-House Wins When
A single establishment, in one state, with a stable headcount and an experienced person running it — in which case a periodic labour law compliance audit is probably all you need from us, and we will say so.
Outsourcing Wins When
Multi-state operations, contract labour on site, headcount crossing thresholds, or a live labour code transition.
We work inside your controls, not around them. If you ever move on, your records move with you.
Day 1
Applicability mapping
Day 2
Gap audit
Day 3
Remediation and documentation
Day 4
Running the calendar with your sign-off
Day 5
Monitoring and periodic reporting
Final sign-off on every filing, delegation of authority, and any disclosure reaching your board, auditor or a regulator.
Amendment tracking, registers and records, returns on the statutory calendar, inspections and notices, and the audit trail behind all of it.
01
Manufacturing units across India managing Factory Act requirements, labour compliance, safety obligations and state-specific regulations across multiple locations.
02
IT, SaaS and services companies crossing 10, 20, 50 and 100 employees, picking up new statutory obligations at each threshold.
03
GCCs and foreign subsidiaries needing every registration right the first time, with a record clean enough for a global parent’s audit.
04
Staffing, facility management and logistics firms running contract workforces, where CLRA compliance and principal employer liability are the whole exposure.
05
Companies heading into diligence — an investor round, an acquisition, or a large customer’s vendor audit — needing three years of compliance reconstructed and defensible in weeks.
Most labour law compliance companies in India come out of staffing. We come from accounting — so your PF, ESIC, gratuity and PT liabilities reconcile to your books, not just to a filing. Liability that reconciles is what survives an audit.
We work daily with Maharashtra's labour, factory and PT departments from Pune and Mumbai, and file across states for clients operating nationally.
Your engagement is led by a named professional with two decades across labour, industrial and factory compliance, who has handled inspections and department liaison directly.
Much of this market serves enterprises with thousands of employees. We work with establishments from thirty people up — where compliance outgrows a spreadsheet but does not yet justify a department.
❌ Treating the labour codes as “not applicable yet”
the wage definition is live, and deferring only grows the arrears.
❌ Following central rules alone
where the legacy state Act still governs.
❌ Missing state minimum wage revisions
between audits.
❌ Collecting a contractor’s licence once
and calling it verification.
❌ Registers that exist but stopped being updated.
❌ No single owner for the compliance calendar,
so it belongs to HR and finance jointly and therefore to neither.
Yes. All four came into force on 21 November 2025, with central rules notified in May 2026. Where your state has notified rules, those apply alongside; where it has not, the central rules and legacy state Act govern. The wage definition and appointment letter requirement apply regardless.
More than most expect — shops and establishment compliance from the first employee, gratuity and POSH at 10, ESIC at 10 in most states, and minimum wages, Payment of Wages Act, PT and LWF obligations at any size. EPF begins at 20.
Where basic plus DA falls below half of total remuneration, the shortfall is added back for computing statutory contributions, raising PF, gratuity and bonus liability. We model the impact per grade before it reaches payroll.
An inspector reviews registrations, registers, wage records, challans, returns and acknowledgements, plus site conditions where the Factories Act or OSH Code applies. We keep the file ready, attend, respond to observations and close out any notice
You do, as principal employer — which is why contractor document verification cannot be a formality.
Yes, including for defaults predating our engagement. We prepare the response, represent you before the authority and pursue documented closure.
Yes. Labour law compliance services in Pune, Mumbai and across Maharashtra are our deepest coverage, but we file for clients with multi-state operations nationally.
Payroll computes and disburses. Labour law compliance covers everything around it — registrations, licences, registers, returns, inspections, contractor obligations and amendment tracking. Plenty of establishments have accurate payroll and no compliance record at all.
Applicability mapping and a gap audit take two to three weeks. Most establishments reach a defensible position within a quarter, with older defaults regularised alongside.
Tell us where to start — one location, one Act, or your whole footprint. We will run a free labour law compliance health check, show you what is exposed today, and give you a prioritised plan before you commit to anything.
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