India publishes comprehensive OSH Code 
On September 29, 2020, the government of India published ‘Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020’. The implementation date of the code will be set forth in a separate notification to be issued. The main provisions related to OSH are as follows.
Chapter II Registration
Employers of establishment existed after the enactment of this Code and of facilities to which this Code applies shall submit an application (in electronic form) to the Registration Officer appointed by the competent government within 60 days after the date of the applicability. After the submission deadline, the application may still be accepted upon payment of the stipulated fee.
The definition of ‘establishment’:
- a place where any industry, trade, business, manufacturing or occupation is carried on in which ten or more workers are employed; or
- motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment, audio-video production, building and other construction work or plantation, in which ten or more workers are employed; or
- factory, for the purpose of Chapter II, in which ten or more workers are employed, notwithstanding the threshold of workers provided; or
- a mine or port or vicinity of port where dock work is carried out:
Chapter IV Occupational Safety and Health
The Central Government shall develop standards on occupational safety and health for workplaces relating to factory, mine, dock work, beedi and cigar, building and other construction work and other establishments. These standards are related to physical, chemical, biological and any other hazards to be dealt with for the working life of employee, the norms appraising the hazards to employees and users to whom such hazards are exposed and for medical examination and other tests which shall be made available to the employees exposed to hazards, and so on.
The government may require any establishment to constitute a Safety Committee consisting of representatives of employers and workers. The employer shall also appoint safety officers, who shall possess qualifications and perform duties, as may be prescribed by appropriate Government.
Consolidated laws
The thirteen labor-related laws that are consolidated in this Code are as follows.
These laws and regulations are also repealed by the separate notifications.
- Factories Act, 1948
- Mines Act, 1952
- Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986
- Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996
- Plantations Labour Act, 1951
- Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
- Inter-State Migrant workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979
- Working Journalist and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service and Misc. Provision) Act, 1955
- Working Journalist (Fixation of rates of wages) Act, 1958
- Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
- Sales Promotion Employees (Condition of Service) Act, 1976
- Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966
- Cine Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act, 1981
The Code can be downloaded from the following URL.
