You already have standing orders. Section 29(2) deems the Model Standing Orders adopted in your establishment from the day Chapter IV reached it, and keeps them adopted until your own are certified. The six month window to draft your own closed on 21-May-2026, so the question now is which route gets you certified fastest.
Ten formats, from the worksheet that places you to the records that prove you ran it.
Fill it first. It counts the twelve month lookback the way section 28(1) counts it, which is the number a plant with a seasonal peak usually gets wrong.
All eleven First Schedule matters in the Schedule's own order, each printing the Schedule's exact words above the blank, so nobody has to guess what an item means. Plus the subsistence clause section 38(2) says the orders shall carry.
Section 30(3): adopt the model, tell the certifying officer the date you adopted it, and the orders are deemed certified. You do not wait. In the central sphere rule 10 adds the detail, thirty days for him to object and no authentication step, and your State prescribes the same steps for everyone else. For anyone past the deadline this is the road.
Fifty per cent of wages for the first ninety days, seventy-five after that where the delay is not the worker's fault, and the ninety day inquiry clock beside it. It sits in the same Chapter as the warning letter and binds at the same three hundred.
Every clock in Chapter IV on one page, split by route so you track only your own. Adopt the model and it is thirty days for the officer to object. Draft your own and it is sixty days to deemed certification. Then seven days for copies, thirty days to come into operation, sixty days to appeal, and six months before you may change them.
The threshold looks back twelve months, so the answer can change without your headcount changing. Attendo keeps the daily count.
Because almost everything written about them describes a decision you do not have. Guidance says an establishment above three hundred workers should prepare standing orders and get them certified, as though the alternative were having none. There is no such alternative.
Section 29(2) is the reason. For the period beginning on the date the section becomes applicable to an establishment and ending when its own certified standing orders come into operation, the Model Standing Orders are deemed to be adopted there. Section 33(2) and section 35 then apply to those model orders exactly as they apply to orders you certified yourself. So an establishment that has done nothing is not non-compliant in the way people imagine. It is governed by the Centre's terms rather than its own, which is a different problem and often a worse one.
The second misunderstanding is the deadline. Section 30(1) gave the employer six months from the commencement of the Code to prepare the draft, based on the model and covering every matter in the First Schedule. The four labour codes commenced on 21-Nov-2025, so that window closed on 21-May-2026. Anything published since then which still talks about planning your approach is describing a deadline that has already passed, which is the same failure as a readiness checklist written before the codes commenced.
The third is the threshold, and it is a trap about time rather than size. Section 28(1) reaches an establishment wherein three hundred or more than three hundred workers are employed, OR were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months. Most headcount tests in Indian labour law ask what you are today. This one asks what you were on your busiest day of the year, so a plant that ran a festive shift is inside the Chapter months after the shift ended.
Two things this page does not say. It does not say what your State has prescribed: the Chapter binds everywhere, but the certifying officer, the appellate authority, the prescribed manner of forwarding and any exemption under section 39 belong to the appropriate Government, and no State rules were read for this pack. And it does not say that certified orders you have filed away are compliance: section 33(2) makes you maintain the text for the workers in the prescribed language and manner, which is the same discipline as your registration certificate on the wall.
Section 30(6)(a) makes standing orders certifiable only if provision is made for every matter in the First Schedule that applies to your establishment. One missing head is one refusal.
| The step | How long | From when | If it lapses | Provision | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare the draft | 6 months | Commencement, 21-Nov-2025 | You are late; adopt the model instead | s.30(1) | 02 |
| Consult the union | before forwarding | the draft | The draft is vulnerable | s.30(2) | 06 |
| Certifying officer decides | 30 or 60 days | receipt: 30 if you adopted, 60 if you drafted | Deemed certified in your favour | rule 10(5), s.30(5) | 10 |
| Copies sent to you | 7 days | certification | Chase them; the next clock runs from this | s.30(8) | 10 |
| Orders come into operation | 30 days | copies being sent | 7 days if it went to appeal | s.33(1) | 07 |
Section 28(1) reaches an establishment wherein three hundred or more than three hundred workers are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months. The lookback is what puts a plant at two hundred and eighty inside the Chapter today.
Source: IR Code, 2020, s.28(1), both limbsAdopt the Model Standing Orders and section 30(3) deems them certified. That much is in the Code and binds everywhere. The thirty days is rule 10(5) of the Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2026, and it is the certifying officer’s window to object, not a waiting period of yours. Check your own State’s rules for the equivalent, because section 2(b)(ii) puts every establishment outside railways, mines, ports, air transport, telecom, banking, insurance and the central undertakings with the State.
Source: IR (Central) Rules, 2026, rule 10(5), central sphere; s.30(3) binds allSection 86(10) makes failing to submit draft standing orders punishable with fifty thousand to two lakh rupees, and a continuing offence carries a further two thousand rupees a day. Almost nothing written on standing orders mentions it. Subsistence is fixed the same way: section 38(3) sets fifty per cent of wages for the first ninety days and seventy-five thereafter where the delay is not the worker’s fault.
Source: IR Code, 2020, s.86(10), with s.38(3) for the subsistence ratesSection 29(2) deems the Model Standing Orders adopted until your own are certified. You are not waiting to have standing orders. You have the Centre's, and they bind.
Section 28(1) also catches an establishment that employed three hundred or more on any day of the preceding twelve months. A festive shift last December decides this year, which is the opposite of how the safety officer threshold counts, on workers ordinarily employed rather than a peak.
Two clocks do this, and people quote the wrong one. Draft your own and the proviso to section 30(5) deems it certified after sixty days of silence, so diarise the sixtieth day rather than chasing it. Adopt the model instead and there is nothing to wait for at all: section 30(3) deems it certified and rule 10(6) brings it into force from your adoption date, with rule 10(5) closing his observation window at thirty days. Those two rules are the central ones; outside the central sphere read your State’s.
Section 30(2) requires the employer to consult the Trade Unions or the negotiating union or council before forwarding the draft. An unconsulted draft is weakest exactly where you need it to hold, the same way a grievance committee carried by one side is.
Section 30(11) continues existing standing orders only so far as they are not inconsistent with this Code. They were drafted under an Act the Industrial Relations Code repealed, so the check is real work.
Section 30(6)(a) makes orders certifiable only if provision is made for every applicable matter in the Schedule. One missing head is one refusal, and the contract does not fill the gap. The opposite error costs more: item 9 asks you to define misconduct, and Part I of the Second Schedule says what you may not reach. Dismissing for a lawful strike, discharging office-bearers over union activity, an enquiry run in utter disregard of natural justice, or a punishment out of proportion to a minor lapse are unfair labour practices at ten thousand to two lakh rupees under section 86(5), and section 30(7) lets the certifying officer judge fairness against the model in any case.
Written for the 1946 Act
Ten formats, both routes covered
Certifying them, displaying them and tracking the clocks is the rest. Attendo keeps the headcount and the payroll register in one place.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. This template is one of the free HR downloads we publish, each built from the gazette rather than from other templates.
Ten formats, the orders and the adoption letter, in editable Word. Free, and no card.
