The Minister of State for Labor and Employment introduced the Occupational Safety, Health

and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSHWC) in the Lok Sabha. The 2019 Occupational
Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code was withdrawn after it was reintroduced with
fresh revisions.

The Code combines 143 provisions from the 633 provisions of 13 significant labour statutes.
The laws to be subsumed are as follows:

 The Factories Act, 1948

 The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
 The Mines Act, 1952
 The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986
 The Building & Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and
Conditions of Service) Act, 1996
 The Plantations Labour Act, 1951
 The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of
Service) Act, 1979
 The Working Journalist and other News Paper Employees (Conditions of Service
and Miscellaneous Provision) Act, 1955
 The Working Journalist (Fixation of rates of wages) Act, 1958
 The Cine Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act, 1981
 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

Basis Before After

Definition Terminologies like “Employee”,  New definitions for
“Employer” and “Establishment” “Employee” has been
were defined in varied ways in introduced with wide
previous legislations. coverage.
"Employee" means any person
(other than an apprentice engaged
under the Apprentices Act, 1961)
employed on wages by an

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 establishment, either directly or
through a contractor, to do any
skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled,
manual, operational, supervisory,
managerial, administrative,
technical, clerical or any other work,
whether the terms of employment
be express or implied, and also
includes a person declared to be an
employee by the appropriate
Government, but does not include
any member of the Armed Forces of
the Union.
"Employer" means a person who
employs, whether directly or
through any person, or on his
behalf, or on behalf of any person,
one or more employees in his
establishment. This definition also
covers occupier of a property where
the said property is an
establishment.
“Establishment” means a place
where any industry, trade, business,
manufacturing or occupation is
carried on in which ten or more
workers are employed. It also
includes factory, newspaper
establishment and plantation in
which more than ten workers are
employed.

Registeration The earlier labour legislation all Under the Section 33 of the new

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 required separate registration. code, Every Establishment covered
by the Code requires a single
electronic registration.
Return A number of returns were Under the Section 33 of the new
required to be filed in accordance code, only one return is required to
with the provision of previous be filed under ease of doing
legislations. business.
Under ease of doing business,
only one consolidated return must
be filed.
Welfare officer In the past legislations, in order to As per Section 24 (2) of the new
appoint a welfare officer in an code, in order to appoint a welfare
establishment, there must be 500 officer in an establishment, there
employees in the said must be 250 employees in the said
establishment. establishment.
Welfare There was no legislation As per Section 24 of the code, there
Service to requiring interstate migrant is a provision for interstate migrant
interstate workers to have access to welfare workers to get required welfare
migrants services. services.
National There were no provisions in place As per Section 16 of the new code,
Occupational for the National Occupational the National Occupational Safety
Safety and Safety and Health Advisory and Health Advisory Board will be
Health Board's formation. established by the central
Advisory government.
Board
Crèche facility The required number of female As per Section 24 of the new code,
workers or employees for the the minimum need for a crèche
crèche facility was 30. facility has been raised to 50 female
workers or employees.
Canteen The required number of workers / As per Section 24 of the new code,
facility staff for the Canteen facility was the requirement for a canteen
250. facility has now been lowered to
100 workers or employees.

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transportation There was no specific provision As per the new code. for those
, sales for workers in the transportation, working in the transportation, sales
promotion, or sales promotion, or journalism promotion, and journalism sectors,
journalism sector. there are certain working hours and
leave requirements outlined in the
code.
Night shift for There is no provision for women As per Section 43 of the new code,
women to work during the night shift. the employment of female
employees to work past 7 p.m. and
before 6 a.m. with their approval
and under conditions pertaining to
safety, holidays, and working hours.
Overtime There were no specific provisions As per Section 27 of the new code,
relating to overtime with consent When a worker works in an
in any of the earlier Acts. establishment or class of
establishment for longer than the
number of hours that may be
prescribed by the appropriate
Government in a day or a week,
overtime pay shall be paid at the
rate of twice the rate of wages, and
the period of overtime work shall be
calculated on a daily basis or
weekly basis, depending on which is
more advantageous to the worker.
formation of A threshold of 1000 employees As per Section 22 of the new code,
the safety was required for the formation of The minimum number of workers
committee and the safety committee and the required to form a safety committee
the nomination of the safety officer. and designate a safety officer has
nomination of changed to include the following:
the safety  500 workers in Factory
officer  250 workers in a building
and other construction

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  250 in a hazardous process
 100 workers in a mine.
leave There was no provision for leave As per Section 32 of the new code,
encashment. encashment. there are now provisions in place for
entitlement to leave encashment.
Week Day off Each of the earlier Acts contained As per Section 26 of the new code,
a provision on Week Day off. Workers cannot be made to work
more than six days a week, and they
are entitled to one day off for every
20 days of employment and one day
off each week.

PENALTY
Code on The Before After
Occupational Fine Imprisonment Fine Imprisonment
Safety, Health and
Working
Conditions Code,
2020
The Factories Act, INR 1,00,000 Upto 2 years INR 5,00,000 Upto 2 years
1948 (Factories (max) (min)
Act)
The Mines Act, INR 1,000 Upto 3 months INR 5,00,000 Upto 2 years
1952 (Mines Act) (max) (min)

The Dock Workers INR 500 (max) Upto 6 months INR 5,00,000 Upto 2 years
(Safety, Health and (min)
Welfare) Act, 1986
The Building and INR 2,000 Upto 3 months INR 2,00,000 -
Other Construction (max) (min)
Workers INR 3,00,000
(Regulation of (max)

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 Employment and
Conditions of
Service) Act, 1996
(BOCW Act
The Contract INR 1,000 Upto 3 months INR 2,00,000 -
Labour (Regulation (max) (min)
and Abolition) Act, INR 3,00,000
1970 (CLRA) (max)

The Inter-State INR 1,000 Upto 1 year INR 2,00,000 -

Migrant Workmen (max) (min)
(Regulation of INR 3,00,000
Employment and (max)
Conditions of
Service) Act, 1979
(ISMW Act)
Sales Promotion INR 1,000 - INR 50,000 -
Employees (max) (min)
(Condition of INR 1,00,000
Service) Act, 1976 (max)
(Sales Promotion
Act)

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