OSH Code 2020: Scheme, Application and Key Definitions

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 is the largest consolidation among the four Codes. It replaces thirteen Acts, from the Factories Act and Mines Act to the Contract Labour Act and the laws for journalists, dock workers and beedi workers. It sets general duties of safety and health for all covered establishments, standard rules on hours, leave and welfare, and special provisions for particular sectors. This note sets out its scheme, application, key definitions and institutions.

1. Structure of the Code

Figure 1: Fourteen chapters, 143 sections

• Acts replaced, s.143. Factories Act 1948, Plantations Labour Act 1951, Mines Act 1952, the two Working Journalists Acts, Motor Transport Workers Act 1961, Beedi and Cigar Workers Act 1966, Contract Labour Act 1970, Sales Promotion Employees Act 1976, Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979, Cine-Workers Act 1981, Dock Workers Act 1986 and BOCW (RECS) Act 1996.
• Constitutional basis. Entries 24 of List III and 55 of List I, with Articles 21, 39(e) and 42 (Topic 2)

2. Application and Key Definitions

Figure 2: What the Code covers

• Worker, s.2(1)(zzl). A person employed to do manual, skilled, unskilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work, excluding managerial staff and supervisors above ₹18,000; hours, leave and many welfare provisions protect workers (Topic 3)
• Employee, s.2(1)(t). The wider category, including managerial staff; the duties of employers in s.6 run to employees.
• Occupier. The person with ultimate control over the affairs of a factory; for a company, one of its directors.
• Manufacturing process. Includes making, altering, repairing, finishing, packing, treating or adapting any article, as well as pumping, generating power, printing and similar processes.
• Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwala v State of Bombay (1962). Salt works with open land on which a manufacturing process was carried on were held to be premises and a factory.
• J.K. Industries v Chief Inspector of Factories (1996). The requirement that a director be the occupier of a company's factory was upheld, so that responsibility for safety rests at the top.

3. Registration and Institutions

• Registration, s.3. Every employer of an establishment to which the Code applies registers electronically within the prescribed time; registrations under the repealed Acts are treated as registrations under the Code.
• Appeal, s.4. Against refusal or cancellation of registration, to the prescribed appellate authority.
• Commencement and closure, s.5. The employer gives notice of commencement and cessation of operations.
• Advisory Boards, ss.16, 17. The National and State Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Boards advise on standards, rules and policy, replacing several separate boards under the old Acts.
• Standards, s.18. The Central Government declares national standards for safety and health in factories, mines, docks, construction and other establishments.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

What is a factory under the OSH Code?

Under section 2(1)(w), a factory is any premises, including its precincts, where twenty or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and a manufacturing process is carried on with the aid of power; or forty or more workers where it is carried on without power. The thresholds were ten and twenty under the Factories Act, 1948.

Which Acts are replaced by the OSH Code?

Thirteen Acts, including the Factories Act 1948, Mines Act 1952, Plantations Labour Act 1951, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979, Dock Workers Act 1986, BOCW (RECS) Act 1996, and the laws for working journalists, motor transport workers, beedi and cigar workers, sales promotion employees and cine workers.

5. Related Topics

• Topic 29: Duties of Employers and Employees. Chapters III to VI.
• Topic 34: Special Provisions for Particular Sectors. Mines, plantations, construction and others.