Labour welfare, social security and the ILO - Labour and Industrial Law II

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1. Labour welfare
2. Social welfare and social security
3. The influence of the ILO
4. Constitutional dimensions
5. From nine Acts to one Code
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

Where this fits. Semester 2 dealt with the Codes on wages and industrial relations. This paper is about the other two Codes: the Code on Social Security, 2020 (Act 36 of 2020) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act 37 of 2020). The opening topic asks for definitions and constitutional support, so the marks go to clear definitions and to the cases that turned Part IV into enforceable rights.

1. Labour welfare

Labour welfare means the efforts of the State, the employer and trade unions to improve the conditions of the worker beyond what the wage contract gives him. The Labour Investigation Committee (1946) described it as anything done for the intellectual, physical, moral and economic betterment of workers, whether by employers, by Government or by other agencies, over and above what is laid down by law or what is normally expected as part of the contractual benefits. The Royal Commission on Labour (1931) had already called the term elastic, its content varying with time, place and industry. Welfare is usually divided into:

Statutory welfare — what the law compels: drinking water, latrines, canteens, creches, rest rooms, first aid, welfare officers. Under the OSH Code these are in Chapter VI (the Factories Act, 1948 had them in Chapter V).
Voluntary welfare — what the employer gives of his own accord: housing, schools, transport, recreation.
Mutual welfare — what workers organise for themselves, usually through trade unions.

Two classifications are also common: intra-mural welfare (inside the factory, such as canteens and safety appliances) and extra-mural welfare (outside it, such as housing and education).

2. Social welfare and social security

Social welfare is the wider idea: the State's provision for the weaker sections of the whole community, whether or not they are workers. Labour welfare is the part of it that concerns workers.

Social security is narrower and more precise. It is protection given by society against the contingencies of life that cut off or reduce earnings. The Code now defines it. Section 2(78) says social security means the measures of protection afforded to employees, unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers to ensure access to health care and to provide income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner, by means of rights conferred on them and schemes framed under the Code.

Social security works through two methods:

Social insurance — contributory. Employer and employee pay into a fund, and benefits are paid as of right when the contingency occurs. The ESI scheme (Chapter IV) and the provident fund (Chapter III) are examples.
Social assistance — non-contributory. Benefits are paid out of general revenue to those in need, such as old age pensions for the destitute. Employer liability schemes, where the employer alone pays (gratuity, employees' compensation, maternity benefit), sit between the two.

3. The influence of the ILO

The International Labour Organisation, set up in 1919, works through Conventions (binding on a State that ratifies them) and Recommendations (guidance only). Its Constitution and the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) treat social security as part of social justice. Three strands of influence on Indian law matter for this paper:

Early conventions on night work of women, maternity protection and workmen's compensation (1919–1925) were followed by the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 and the provincial maternity benefit laws of the 1920s and 1930s.
The Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) lists nine branches: medical care, sickness, unemployment, old age, employment injury, family, maternity, invalidity and survivors' benefit. The ESI Act, 1948 and the EPF Act, 1952 covered several of these, and the definition in section 2(78) of the Code follows the same list of contingencies.
The Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) and the labour inspection conventions shaped the idea of a single safety code with an inspector-cum-facilitator, which the OSH Code adopts.

Courts use international instruments to read content into fundamental rights where domestic law is silent. The best-known instance is Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, 1997 INSC 604, (1997) 6 SCC 241, where the Court relied on CEDAW to frame guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace. The same approach was used for maternity benefit in Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Female Workers (Muster Roll) (2000), discussed in the maternity note.

4. Constitutional dimensions

The Directive Principles are the textual source of social security law:

Article 38 — a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, informs all institutions.
Article 39(e) and (f) — the health and strength of workers are not to be abused; children are to be protected against exploitation.
Article 41 — public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement.
Article 42 — just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
Article 43 — a living wage and conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life.

Social security appears in the Concurrent List: Entry 23 (social security and social insurance; employment and unemployment) and Entry 24 (welfare of labour, including conditions of work, provident funds, employers' liability, workmen's compensation, invalidity and old age pensions and maternity benefits). Both Parliament and the States may legislate, which is why the Code leaves many schemes and rules to the “appropriate Government”.

The Supreme Court has read these principles into Article 21:

Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, 1983 INSC 203, (1984) 3 SCC 161 — the right to live with human dignity under Article 21 derives its life breath from Articles 39(e) and (f), 41 and 42, and at the least includes protection of the health and strength of workers and just and humane conditions of work.
Consumer Education and Research Centre v. Union of India, 1995 INSC 76, (1995) 3 SCC 42 — asbestos workers. The right to health and medical care of a worker, during service and after retirement, is a fundamental right under Article 21 read with Articles 39(e), 41 and 43. The Court directed compulsory health insurance and medical examination of workers.
D.S. Nakara v. Union of India, 1982 INSC 103, (1983) 1 SCC 305 — pension is a social welfare measure and a right, not a bounty; an arbitrary cut-off date dividing pensioners into two classes violated Article 14.
People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, 1982 INSC 67, (1982) 3 SCC 235 (the Asiad case) — labour laws protecting workers' basic needs are enforceable at the instance of public spirited persons, and paying less than the minimum wage is forced labour under Article 23.

5. From nine Acts to one Code

The Second National Commission on Labour (2002) recommended grouping central labour laws into a few codes. Section 164(1) of the Code on Social Security repeals nine Acts: the Employee's Compensation Act, 1923; the ESI Act, 1948; the EPF and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959; the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972; the Cine-Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981; the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996; and the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008.

Commencement came in stages. Section 142 (Aadhaar) was brought into force on 3 May 2021. The pension-related parts of sections 15 and 16 and the corresponding repeal of the EPF Act came into force on 3 May 2023 (S.O. 2060(E)). Almost everything else, including the repeal of the other eight Acts, came into force on 21 November 2025 by S.O. 5319(E). Section 164(2) saves things done under the repealed Acts, and section 164(3) applies section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897.

Trap. The papers before 2026 were set on the old Acts and many questions still name them (“the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961”, “the EPF Act, 1952”). Answer on the Code, say in one line that the named Act stands repealed and replaced, and give the old section in brackets. Examiners give credit for the current law; they do not give it for an answer that treats a repealed Act as in force.

How this is examined

The January 2026 paper asked: define “labour welfare” and explain the constitutional provisions relating to labour welfare with decided cases (10 marks). August 2024 asked the same in terms of “labour welfare legislation”; February 2025 and June 2019 set the old favourite, “Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles are the backbone of industrial jurisprudence — elucidate”. June 2019 also asked for the ILO's labour standards and how far India has ratified them. Structure the answer as definition, classification, ILO, Articles 38 to 43 with the Concurrent List entries, then Bandhua Mukti Morcha, CERC and Nakara, and end with the Code. For “social security” as a short note, quote section 2(78) and give the social insurance / social assistance distinction.