NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday notified the four Labour Codes pending since 2020, ushering in several worker-friendly measures such as universal social security and timely minimum wage, while also trying to make life easy for companies in terms of compliance and paper work.

In all, 29 older labour laws were streamlined into 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.

According to the government, these codes will bring improvements in wages, workplace safety, social security, equality, and employee rights across several sectors.

In a first, gig workers have been formally brought under the social security framework. Towards this, aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Uber will have to contribute 1-2% of their annual turnover.

Among the other key reforms are mandatory appointment letters to workers to ensure formalisation and job security, expanded rights and safety for women, including night-shift work and mandatory grievance committees, and free annual health check-ups for workers above 40.