N. M. Lokhande Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies was established on July 7, 1947 by Bharatratna Late Gulzarilal Nanda, the former Prime Minister of India and the then Labour Minister of the then Bombay Province. At inception the name of the institute was “Bombay Labour Institute”. The Government of India passed the Factories Act, 1948 for the regulation of industries and the welfare of workers. At that time there was an acute shortage of trained "Labour Welfare Officers" to be employed by the factories. For this, the Government had constituted a committee in the year 1953 under the chairmanship of Mrs. Hansa Mehta. As per the recommendation of this committee, the Government approved this institute to conduct a full time diploma course of two years. This course was approved to be implemented as a labor studies course under the Bombay University Act in the year 1959. In the year 1970, Bombay University recognized the course as a Master's degree by naming the degree course as “Labour Welfare and Industrial Relations”. Subsequently, the said course was approved by the University of Mumbai as a Master's Degree in "Labour Studies".

The Institute was renamed as “Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies” on 31st March, 1976. Later, as per Government Resolution dated 19th July, 2008, it was renamed as “Late Narayan Meghaji Lokhande Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies”. A regional branch of this Institute was established by Government Resolution dated 25th June 1971 at Nagpur. The name of that institute was “Regional Labour Institute”. Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University has approved the course as Master's Degree in “Labour Studies”. Department of Industries, Energy and Labour, vide Government Resolution No. MLI-2022/ C.R.158/ Labour-6, dated 01/02/2023 has renamed both the institute at Mumbai and Nagpur as “N.M. Lokhande Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies”.

Taking into account the domain of ‘Human’ contribution to organizational prosperity and recognition of employee participation providing value add to stakeholders, course is revamped and designed to meet the current industry demand for trained professionals and is titled as “Human Capital Management and Employee Relations”, from academic year 2023-24. This course, under New Education Policy, 2020 with new title and syllabus is approved by the University of Mumbai and RTM University, Nagpur as a Master's Degree in “Human Capital Management and Employee Relations”.