Abstract
India's four Labour Codes came into force on 21 November 2025, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 is presented as their flexicurity centrepiece, balancing employer flexibility with worker security. This article tests that claim against the concept as Wilthagen and Tros defined it, and finds the bargain one sided. The Code regulates the formal working day with real precision: an eight hour daily limit, a forty eight hour weekly ceiling, mandatory consent and double pay for overtime, and a quarterly cap of one hundred and forty four hours under the 2026 Central Rules. It says nothing about the unpaid digital availability that now extends the working day well past its formal close. Drawing on France's statutory right to disconnect, Norway's bargained equivalent, and Eurofound survey data linking unregulated availability to stress and lower job satisfaction, the article argues the gap is not incidental but structural, and proposes a specific rule under Section 6(1) to correct it.