Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020

The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code consolidates and amends India’s laws on workplace safety, health, and working conditions.

Key Objectives

Spread across 14 chapters, 143 sections, and 3 schedules, the Code merges and simplifies 13 existing Central Acts, all of which it repeals:

• The Factories Act, 1948
• The Mines Act, 1952
• The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986
• The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996
• The Plantations Labour Act, 1951
• The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
• The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979
• The Working Journalist and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1955
• The Working Journalist (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958
• The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
• The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976
• The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966
• The Cine Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act, 1981

Key Highlights

• Simplifies registration: establishments with 10+ employees must register with the appropriate government’s registering officer, cutting down on statutory compliance overhead.
• Redefines “factory” thresholds — from 10/20 workers to 20/40 workers (power/non-power manufacturing) — and caps daily working hours at 8.
• Requires appointment letters for all employees and workers.
• Defines an establishment’s “core activity” (its central purpose plus essential related activities) and prohibits contract labour there — except when the activity is normally contractor-run, doesn’t need full-time staff most of the day, or covers a sudden, time-bound spike in work.
• Expands inter-state migrant worker benefits — insurance and provident fund coverage in either their home or employment state, and portability of construction-cess-fund benefits in their destination state.
• Requires free health check-ups for workers over 45 in prescribed hazardous industries (factories, mines, plantations, and hazardous processes).
• Caps annual leave carryover at 30 days, but allows encashment of any leave beyond that — effectively eliminating leave lapse.
• Sharpens penalties: violations of any Code provision can draw fines from ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh.

Applicability

• The Central Government will notify, in the Official Gazette, when the Code takes effect — either as a single date for the whole Code, or different dates for different provisions.
• Doesn’t apply to Central or State Government offices, or to any warship of any nationality — except that contract labour employed through a contractor in a government office (where the government is the principal employer) is still covered.

Registration of Establishment

• Employers of new establishments must apply electronically to the registering officer within 60 days of the Code becoming applicable to them.
• Ownership, management, or other changes must be reported electronically within 30 days; the registration certificate is updated accordingly.
• On closing, employers must notify the registering officer within 30 days and certify that all worker dues are paid; the registration is cancelled within 60 days.
• Unregistered establishments — or ones whose registration was cancelled and the appeal (if any) failed — cannot employ anyone.
• Establishments already registered under another applicable Central labour law are deemed registered under this Code too, as long as they share their existing registration details with the registering officer within the prescribed time.

Duties of Employer and Employees

Employers must:

• Keep the workplace free of hazards likely to cause injury or occupational disease
• Comply with prescribed occupational safety and health standards
• Provide free annual health check-ups to prescribed categories of employees
• Maintain a safe working environment as far as reasonably practicable
• Properly dispose of hazardous and toxic waste, including e-waste
• Issue appointment letters to every employee (existing employees without one must get it within 3 months of the Code’s commencement)
• Never charge employees for safety/health measures, including medical examinations for occupational disease detection
• For factories, mines, docks, construction, or plantations: take responsibility for the safety and health of everyone on the premises, whether or not the employer is aware of their presence

Specifically for factories, mines, docks, construction, and plantations, employers must:

• Provide and maintain safe plant and work systems
• Arrange safe handling, storage, and transport of articles and substances
• Provide adequate information, training, instruction, and supervision
• Keep workplaces and access/egress routes safe
• Maintain a safe, healthy working environment with proper welfare facilities

Duties of mine owners, agents, and managers

• Owners and agents are jointly responsible for financial and other provisions needed to comply with mine-related Code requirements.
• If the Code is violated, the supervising official, mine manager, owner, and agent can all be deemed guilty too — unless they can show they exercised due diligence and took reasonable steps to prevent it.

Duties of designers, manufacturers, importers, and suppliers

• Must ensure articles are designed and built to be safe when properly used, testing as necessary.
• Must provide adequate usage information, including safe-use conditions.
• Imported articles must meet Indian safety standards, or the exporting country’s higher standard, or (absent an Indian standard) that country’s national standard.
• Must follow additional duties the Central Government specifies, in consultation with the National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board.
• Designers/manufacturers should research and, where practicable, minimize health/safety risks arising from an article or substance’s design or manufacture.
• Anyone erecting or installing factory equipment must ensure it doesn’t create unsafe conditions once in use.
• Substance manufacturers/importers/suppliers must similarly test, inform, and research to minimize risk.

“Article” includes plant and machinery. “Substance” means any natural or artificial material — solid, liquid, gas, or vapour — intended or not for factory use.

Duties of architects, project engineers, and designers

• Must factor in worker safety and health at the planning stage for any construction project.
• Must avoid designs involving dangerous structures, processes, or materials during erection, operation, or execution.
• Must also account for safety during future maintenance and upkeep.

Notice of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences, and Certain Diseases

• Any accident causing death, or an injury preventing work for 48+ hours, must be reported by the employer/owner/agent/manager to the prescribed authority within the prescribed time.
• Fatal accidents at plantations or construction sites trigger an inquiry within 2 months of the notice (by the relevant authority, or the Inspector-cum-Facilitator if none exists).
• Dangerous occurrences (injury or not) must also be reported as prescribed.
• Diseases listed in the Third Schedule, contracted by a worker, must be reported by the employer within the prescribed timeline.
• A medical practitioner treating someone with (or suspected of having) a Third Schedule disease must report it to the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator without delay — failure carries a penalty up to ₹10,000.

Duties of Employees

Every employee must:

• Take reasonable care for their own and others’ health and safety
• Follow prescribed safety and health standards
• Cooperate with the employer’s statutory safety obligations
• Promptly report unsafe or unhealthy situations to the employer or safety representative
• Not misuse, neglect, or interfere with safety equipment
• Not knowingly endanger themselves or others without reasonable cause
• Perform any other prescribed duties

Rights of Employees

• Employees can request health and safety information from their employer, and raise concerns directly or through a Safety Committee representative — escalating to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator if unsatisfied.
• If a worker reasonably believes there’s imminent serious injury, death, or health danger, they can notify the employer (directly or via the Safety Committee) and the Inspector-cum-Facilitator simultaneously.
• If satisfied the danger is real, the employer or worker must take immediate remedial action and report it to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator.
• If the employer disputes the danger, they must still refer the matter to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, whose decision is final.

National and State Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Boards

• The Central Government constitutes a National Board to advise on standards, implementation, policy, and any Code-related matters referred to it.
• State Governments constitute equivalent State Boards for matters referred by the state.

Occupational Safety and Health Standards

The Central Government notifies standards covering:

• Physical, chemical, biological, and other workplace hazards, aiming to prevent material health/functional impairment even with regular exposure
• Hazard evaluation norms, symptom monitoring, exposure measurement, and employer-funded medical exams for exposed employees
• Hazard evaluation procedures — safety audits, hazard/operability studies, fault-tree and event-tree analysis, and similar tools
• Post-employment medical monitoring for occupational diseases arising from past work
• Any other workplace safety aspects the government deems necessary
• Sector-specific measures for mines, factories, construction, beedi/cigar work, dock work, and other notified establishments
• Matters listed in the Second Schedule

Safety Committee and Safety Officers

• The government can require establishments (or classes of establishments) to form a Safety Committee with employer and worker representatives.
• Mandatory Safety Officers are required at:
  • Factories with 500+ workers
  • Hazardous-process factories with 250+ workers
  • Construction sites with 250+ workers
  • Mines with 100+ workers

Employer Responsibility for Health, Safety, and Working Conditions

The Central Government can prescribe requirements covering:

• Cleanliness and hygiene
• Ventilation, temperature, and humidity
• Freedom from dust, gas, fumes, and other impurities
• Air humidification, ventilation, and cooling standards
• Potable drinking water
• Anti-overcrowding standards and adequate space
• Adequate lighting
• Separate, hygienic latrine/urinal facilities for male, female, and transgender employees
• Effective waste and effluent treatment
• Any other measures the government considers appropriate

Welfare Facilities

Employers must provide, as prescribed:

• Separate washing facilities for male and female employees
• Separate bathing places and locker rooms for male, female, and transgender employees
• Storage for off-duty clothing and drying for wet clothing
• Seating for workers who’d otherwise stand all day
• Canteens, where 100+ workers (including contract labour) are ordinarily employed
• Pre-employment and periodic medical exams for mine workers
• Accessible first-aid boxes during all working hours
• Any other welfare measures needed for a decent standard of living

The Central Government can also prescribe:

• Ambulance rooms in factories, mines, and construction sites with 500+ workers
• Medical facilities, uniforms, and weather protection for motor transport workers
• Separate rest rooms/shelters and lunch rooms for male, female, and transgender workers in factories and mines with 50+ workers, and for overnight motor transport halts
• Welfare officers in factories, mines, and plantations with 250+ workers, along with their qualifications and duties
• Free temporary living accommodation for building workers at or near the worksite, including its later removal and land restoration
• Reimbursement to contractors for accommodation costs on construction projects
• Any other prescribed welfare matter

Establishments with 50+ workers may also need crèche facilities for children under 6, either standalone or shared — including via government, municipal, private, or NGO-run common crèches, or pooled resources across establishments.

Hours of Work and Annual Leave with Wages

• No worker can work more than 8 hours a day, with intervals and spread-overs as notified.
• For mine workers below ground: hours are capped as the Central Government notifies, shift systems must respect the daily maximum, and presence below ground outside registered work periods is prohibited.

Motor transport worker hours include:

• Time spent on the vehicle’s actual running time
• Time spent on subsidiary work (accounts, ticket-checking, garaging, vehicle upkeep, loading/unloading, and similar tasks)
• Attendance periods under 15 minutes at terminals

“Running time” excludes interruptions exceeding a prescribed duration during which the worker is free to do as they please. “Period of mere attendance” means time spent waiting to respond to calls or resume duty per schedule.

Working journalists:

Capped at 144 hours over any 4 consecutive weeks, with at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every 7-day period, as further prescribed.

Sales promotion employees and working journalists get, on request:

• Earned leave on full wages: at least 1/11th of time on duty
• Medical leave at half wages: at least 1/18th of service period
• The ability to accumulate earned leave up to a prescribed cap
• Encashment or lump-sum use of earned leave beyond a prescribed limit, with prescribed exceptions
• Cash compensation for unused earned leave upon voluntary resignation, retirement, or non-punitive termination
• For workers who die in service, their heirs get equivalent cash compensation for unused earned leave

Adolescent worker hours follow the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

Weekly and Compensatory Holidays

• No worker can work more than 6 days a week — except in motor transport, where an employer can require work on a weekly holiday to avoid service disruption, provided the worker never works more than 10 consecutive days without a full-day holiday.

Extra Wages for Overtime

• Overtime work is paid at twice the normal wage rate, calculated daily or weekly (whichever benefits the worker more).
• Workers can only be required to work overtime with their consent.
• The government can cap total overtime hours.

Night Shifts

• For shifts extending past midnight, the weekly holiday is counted as a 24-hour period starting when that shift ends.
• The “following day” for that worker starts when the shift ends; post-midnight hours count toward the previous day.

Prohibition of Overlapping Shifts

• No establishment can run overlapping shifts with more than one group of workers doing the same work at the same time.
• The government (or the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator, with approval) can grant written exemptions for specific establishments or categories — except mines, which are never exempt.

Restriction on Double Employment

• Workers can’t work in a mine or factory if they worked at a similar establishment within the preceding 12 hours, except in prescribed circumstances.

Notice of Periods of Work

• Every establishment must display an accurate notice showing daily work periods, in the prescribed form, and send it to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator.
• Changes affecting the notice must be reported to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator beforehand, and generally can’t take effect until a week after the prior change — absent prior sanction.

Annual Leave with Wages

Workers earn annual leave if they’ve worked 180+ days in a calendar year, at these rates:

• 1 day per 20 days worked (general workers)
• 1 day per 15 days worked (adolescent workers)
• 1 day per 15 days worked (underground mine workers)

Additional rules:

• Lay-off, maternity leave, and annual leave days count toward the 180-day threshold, but don’t themselves earn additional leave.
• Holidays falling within a leave period are excluded from that leave count.
• Workers starting mid-year qualify for prorated leave if they’ve worked at least 1/4 of the remaining calendar year.
• Workers who are discharged, dismissed, resign, retire, or die during the year get wages in lieu of accrued unused leave — even without meeting the 180-day threshold — payable within 2 working days (discharge/dismissal/resignation) or 2 months (retirement/death).
• Unused leave carries forward to the next year, capped at 30 days total carryover — except leave a worker requested but wasn’t granted, which carries forward without limit.
• Workers can request encashment of unused leave at year-end, and must be allowed to encash any leave exceeding 30 days.

These rules don’t diminish any better rights a mine worker has under other law, award, or contract — better terms prevail, with the Code filling any gaps. The Central Government can exempt a mine from these provisions if its own leave rules are judged no less favourable.

Maintenance of Registers, Records, and Returns

Employers must:

• Maintain prescribed registers covering work performed, daily working hours, weekly rest days, wages paid and receipts, leave/overtime/attendance/dangerous occurrences, and adolescent employment
• Display workplace notices as prescribed
• Issue wage slips (electronic or otherwise)
• File electronic or other returns with the Inspector-cum-Facilitator as prescribed

Inspector-cum-Facilitators and Other Authorities

• Appointed by the government, with jurisdiction-wide powers, including web-based inspections and electronic information requests.

Special Provisions for Women’s Employment

• Women can work in all establishments and all types of work under the Code, including before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m., with their consent, subject to prescribed safety, holiday, and working-hour conditions.
• Where the government considers certain hazardous work dangerous for women’s health/safety, it can require employers to implement safeguards before employing women for that work.

Special Provisions for Contract Labour and Inter-State Migrant Workers

Contract Labour

Applies to:

• Establishments with 50+ contract labourers (currently or in the preceding 12 months)
• Manpower contractors who employed 50+ contract labourers in the preceding 12 months

Doesn’t apply to establishments doing only intermittent or casual work — with the government (after consulting the National or State Advisory Board) having final say on what counts as intermittent/casual. Work isn’t “intermittent” if it ran 120+ days in the preceding 12 months, or 60+ days for seasonal work.

• Contractors must hold a valid licence to supply, engage, or execute work through contract labour — potentially a work-specific, renewable, electronically issued licence if full qualifications aren’t met.
• Contractors can’t charge fees or commissions from contract labourers, directly or indirectly.

Prohibition of Contract Labour in Core Activities

• Core-activity contract labour is prohibited, except where:
  • The activity is normally contractor-run
  • The activity doesn’t need full-time workers for most of the working day/period
  • There’s a sudden, time-bound spike in core-activity work
• Disputes over what counts as “core activity” go to the appropriate government (directly or via a designated authority for investigation), which decides within a prescribed period.

Inter-State Migrant Workers

Applies to establishments with 10+ inter-state migrant workers (currently or in the preceding 12 months).

Contractors and employers must:

• Ensure suitable working conditions given the worker is away from their home state
• Report fatal accidents or serious injuries to authorities in both states and to the worker’s next of kin
• Extend all standard establishment benefits, including ESI, PF, and medical check-ups

Employers must also:

• Pay an annual lump-sum travel allowance for the worker’s home-state round trip, per prescribed conditions
• The government must create schemes allowing:
  • Public distribution system access in either the home or destination state
  • Portability of construction-cess-fund benefits in the destination state

Audio-Visual Workers

• Audio-visual workers require a written agreement with the producer (directly or via a contractor), registered with the competent authority.

Every such agreement must:

• Follow the prescribed form
• Specify the worker’s name and required particulars
• If employed through a contractor, hold the producer jointly liable for the contractor’s wage/obligation failures (with reimbursement rights against the contractor)

A copy goes to the prescribed authority if the worker is covered under provident fund law.

The agreement must cover:

• Nature of assignment
• Wages and other benefits (including PF, where applicable)
• Health and working conditions
• Safety
• Hours of work
• Welfare facilities
• Dispute resolution — unresolved disputes can go to the Industrial Tribunal under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, treated as an industrial dispute; producers must provide agreed facilities and pay wages electronically.

Mines

• Every mine needs a sole, qualified manager, appointed by the owner/agent (who may self-appoint if qualified).
• The manager is responsible for overall management, control, and direction, per any written instructions from the owner/agent.
• Except in emergencies, only the manager can issue instructions to mine staff regarding statutory duties.

Most Code provisions don’t apply to:

• Prospecting-only excavations (subject to prescribed conditions)
• Mines extracting basic materials like kankar, murrum, laterite, gravel, ordinary sand/clay, building stone, and similar (subject to prescribed conditions)
• In emergencies (safety risk, accident, act of God, urgent equipment repairs), the manager can take necessary protective action, even if it affects mineral production — within limits necessary to avoid serious disruption.
• No one under 18 can work in a mine. Apprentices/trainees 16+ can work under supervision (trainees need prior Inspector-cum-Facilitator approval).
• The Central Government prescribes medical exam requirements to confirm fitness and prevent underage work.

Beedi and Cigar Workers

• Industrial premises used for beedi/cigar manufacturing need a valid licence.
• Applications specify maximum daily employee count and include a premises plan. Licensing decisions consider premises suitability, applicant experience, financial capacity, application legitimacy, and local labour/public interest.
• Licences last 5 years, renewable with an application at least 30 days before expiry (with prescribed fees); pending renewal applications keep the licence effectively active.
• Exemption: private dwelling houses where the occupant (not an employee) manufactures with family members’ help.

“Family” excludes children as defined under child labour law. “Private dwelling house” means a residence of beedi/cigar workers.

Building or Other Construction Workers

• Workers with known deafness, defective vision, or a tendency to dizziness can’t be assigned construction work that risks accidents to themselves or others.

Factories

• The government can make rules on plan submission, site permission, construction/extension approval, and licensing (with fees).
• If no decision is communicated within 30 days of a complete application, permission is deemed granted.
• Refused applicants can appeal within 30 days — to the Central Government (if refused by a State Government) or the State Government (otherwise).
• Replacing or adding plant/machinery doesn’t count as “extension” unless it reduces safe clearance space or worsens environmental conditions.
• Where a building is leased to multiple factory occupiers sharing common facilities (safety, fire protection, hygiene, ventilation, canteens, crèches, and similar), the owner and occupiers are jointly responsible for maintaining them.

Hazardous processes

The government can make rules for hazardous manufacturing processes covering:

• Declaring a process dangerous
• Restricting pregnant women’s employment in it
• Periodic, employer-funded medical exams
• Welfare, sanitary, and protective-equipment requirements

Occupiers of hazardous-process factories must:

• Disclose hazard information to workers, authorities, local government, and the nearby public
• Establish and communicate a health/safety policy at registration, updating authorities on any changes
• Provide accurate waste quantity/disposal information
• Draw up an approved on-site emergency plan and disaster measures, publicized to workers and nearby residents
• Notify the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator 30 days before starting a hazardous process (violation risks licence cancellation)
• Get prior approval for handling, storage, and disposal measures for hazardous substances, and publicize them
• Maintain accessible health/medical records for exposed workers
• Appoint qualified personnel to supervise hazardous-substance handling and provide protective facilities
• Conduct medical exams before, during (every 12 months), and after hazardous-substance-related work

Plantations

The State Government can require employers to provide:

• Housing (with drinking water, kitchen, toilet) for workers and families
• Crèche facilities where 50+ workers (including contractor-employed) work — standalone or via shared/common crèches
• Educational facilities where 25+ workers’ children aged 6–12 are present
• Health facilities (or ESI coverage) for workers and families
• Recreational facilities

Additional plantation employer duties:

• Fund welfare facilities directly or via government/local body schemes
• Arrange safe use, handling, storage, and transport of insecticides, pesticides, and toxic chemicals
• Provide special safeguards for women/adolescents handling hazardous chemicals, as prescribed
• Appoint qualified supervisors for chemical handling
• Train workers on chemical hazards and emergency response
• Arrange periodic medical exams for exposed workers
• Maintain accessible health records for exposed workers
• Provide washing, bathing, locker facilities, and protective equipment for workers handling chemicals
• Display permissible chemical concentration limits in worker breathing zones
• Post prescribed hazard-warning notices

Offences and Penalties

• General Code/rule violations: ₹2 lakh–₹3 lakh fine, plus up to ₹2,000/day for continued violation after conviction.
• Obstructing an inspector, refusing entry, refusing to produce documents, or ignoring a requisition/order: up to 3 months’ imprisonment and/or a fine up to ₹1 lakh. Repeat offences: up to 6 months and/or ₹1 lakh–₹2 lakh fine.
• Failing to maintain records or produce documents: ₹50,000–₹1 lakh penalty. Repeat offences: ₹50,000–₹2 lakh.
• Violating employment restrictions (women, audio-visual workers, contract labour, underage mine workers): ₹50,000–₹1 lakh penalty. Repeat offences: up to 3 months’ imprisonment and/or up to ₹2 lakh fine.
• Falsifying records, plans, or statements: up to 3 months’ imprisonment and/or up to ₹1 lakh fine. Repeat offences: up to 6 months and/or ₹1 lakh–₹2 lakh fine.
• Failing to submit required plans/returns/records without reasonable excuse: ₹1 lakh–₹2 lakh penalty.
• Unauthorized disclosure of confidential information by an inspector or authorized person: up to 3 months’ imprisonment and/or up to ₹1 lakh fine.
• Publishing/disclosing analysis results outside prosecution needs: up to 6 months’ imprisonment and/or up to ₹50,000 fine.
• Violating hazardous-process safety duties: up to 2 years’ imprisonment and up to ₹5 lakh fine, plus up to ₹25,000/day for continued violation. If it continues beyond 1 year post-conviction: up to 3 years’ imprisonment and/or a ₹20 lakh fine.
• Non-compliance resulting in death: up to 2 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of at least ₹5 lakh.
• Non-compliance resulting in serious injury: up to 1 year’s imprisonment and/or a fine of ₹2 lakh–₹4 lakh (at least 50% of which the court can direct as victim/heir compensation). Repeat offences carry double the penalty.
• Continuing work despite a prohibitory order: up to 2 years’ imprisonment and up to ₹5 lakh fine (courts must justify any fine below ₹2 lakh in writing).
• Failing to appoint a mine manager: up to 3 months’ imprisonment and/or up to ₹1 lakh fine.
• Employee violations of prescribed duties: penalty up to ₹10,000. The employer isn’t automatically liable for an employee’s violation unless proven they failed to take reasonable preventive measures.

Social Security Fund

• The government establishes a fund for unorganised worker welfare, credited from offence compositions and penalties, plus other prescribed sources.
• Administered for unorganised worker welfare, including transfers to other welfare funds under different laws.

“Unorganised worker” carries the same meaning as under the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008.

Effect of Law and Agreements Inconsistent with the Code

• The Code overrides any inconsistent law, award, agreement, or contract — except where an employee already has more favourable terms elsewhere, which they keep, even while receiving Code benefits on other matters.
• Nothing stops an employee and employer from agreeing to more favourable terms than the Code requires.

Draft Rules

The Draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2020, once in force, will replace:

• The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Rules, 1990
• The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1998
• The Model Factories Rules
• The Mines Rules, 1955
• The Mines Rescue Rules, 1985
• The Mines Vocational Training Rules, 1966
• The Pithead Bath Rules, 1959
• The Mines Crèche Rules, 1966
• The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971
• The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Central Rules, 1979
• The Working Journalists (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Rules, 1957
• The Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Rules, 1984
• The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1976

Key Definitions

Core activity — the establishment’s central purpose plus essential related activities. Excludes (unless the establishment was specifically set up for them): sanitation, security/watch services, canteen/catering, loading-unloading, hospitality/education support services, courier support services, construction/maintenance work, gardening, housekeeping/laundry support services, transport/ambulance services, and any intermittent-nature activity.

Employee — anyone (except an Apprentices Act apprentice) employed on wages for skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, manual, operational, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical, or clerical work, plus anyone the government declares an employee. Excludes Armed Forces members. Mine-specific: covers managers and anyone appointed by or working with the knowledge of the owner/agent/manager across mining operations, development, machinery work, mineral loading, mine offices, welfare services, or any mining-related work — paid or not.

Employer — anyone employing people directly or indirectly, including factory occupiers, mine owners/agents/managers, establishment controllers or their managers/directors, contractors, and legal representatives of deceased employers.

Establishment — a workplace with 10+ workers doing industry, trade, business, or occupation; or a motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment, audio-visual production, construction site, or plantation with 10+ workers; or (for Chapter II purposes) a factory with 10+ workers, regardless of the standard factory threshold; or a mine, port, or dock work area. The 10-worker threshold doesn’t apply to hazardous/life-threatening establishments the Central Government notifies.

Factory — premises with 20+ workers using power-driven manufacturing, or 40+ workers using non-power manufacturing (currently or in the preceding 12 months). Excludes military mobile units, railway running sheds, hotels, restaurants, and eating places. State-specific thresholds under prior law continue to apply until amended.

Family (for workers) — spouse; dependent children (including adopted) under 18; and dependent parents, grandparents, widowed daughters, and widowed sisters (excluding those with income above a prescribed threshold).

Hazardous — involving danger or potential danger.

Hazardous process — a First Schedule–listed industrial/plantation process where, without special care, raw materials, products, byproducts, waste, or chemical spraying could materially harm workers’ health or pollute the environment.

Hazardous substance — any substance (or prescribed quantity) whose chemical/physio-chemical properties or handling risks physical or health harm to people, other living things, property, or the environment.

Industrial premises — any non-residential place (including precincts) where industry, trade, business, or manufacturing is ordinarily carried on, including attached godowns.

Industry — any systematic, cooperative activity (direct, agency, or contractor-based) producing or distributing goods/services to meet human wants (excluding purely spiritual/religious ones), regardless of capital or profit motive. Excludes charitable/philanthropic institutions, sovereign government functions (including defence research, atomic energy, and space), domestic service, and other Central Government–notified exclusions.

Inter-State migrant worker — someone recruited in one state for work in another, or who independently found work in another state, earning up to ₹18,000/month (or a higher notified amount).

Manufacturing process — processes like altering, packing, treating, or adapting goods; pumping fluids; generating or transmitting power; printing or binding; ship construction/repair; cold storage; and other Central Government–notified activities.

Motor transport worker — someone employed (paid or not) in a motor transport undertaking to work on or around transport vehicles — including drivers, conductors, cleaners, station staff, clerks, and watchmen. Excludes factory employees and those covered under shop/commercial establishment law.

Occupier (of a factory) — the person with ultimate control over factory affairs — a partner, a director (excluding independent directors), or a government-appointed manager for government-owned factories. For ships under repair in a hired dry dock, the dock owner is the occupier for most purposes.

Ordinarily employed — the average daily headcount at an establishment over the preceding calendar year, based on man-days worked divided by working days (excluding rest/non-working days).

Owner (of a mine) — the immediate proprietor, lessee, or occupier (or liquidator/receiver, if applicable). Excludes those merely receiving royalty/rent/fine, or merely owning the land without mineral interest. Contractors/sub-lessees working a mine are treated as owners for Code purposes, without exempting the actual owner from liability.

Principal employer (where contract labour is used) — the head of a government office/department, factory occupier/manager, mine owner/agent, or whoever supervises and controls any other establishment.

Relay — a group of workers doing the same work during a specific period (shift) of the day.

Serious bodily injury — permanent loss or impairment of a body part or its function, permanent loss/injury to sight or hearing, permanent physical incapacity, or a fracture of any bone or joint (including hand/foot bones).

Wages — total remuneration (basic pay, dearness allowance, retaining allowance) payable for employment, excluding statutory bonuses outside contract terms, housing/utility/medical amenities, employer PF/pension contributions and interest, conveyance allowance, special expense reimbursements, house rent allowance, award/settlement remuneration, overtime, commission, gratuity, and retrenchment/retirement compensation — subject to the same 50%-cap and 15%-in-kind rules as under the Code on Wages.

Worker — anyone doing manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical, or supervisory work in an establishment for pay, including working journalists and sales promotion employees. Excludes Air Force/Army/Navy Act personnel, police/prison staff, managerial/administrative staff, and supervisory staff earning above ₹18,000/month (or a notified higher amount).

References

• Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020
• Draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2020