The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020

The widest of the four: thirteen acts covering factories, contract labour, migrant workers, plantations, mines and more become one code with a single registration, higher applicability thresholds and new worker protections.

In force since 21 November 2025; central rules notified 8 May 2026. State rules are at different stages — check the tracker for your state, because until a state notifies final rules, the rules under the acts below continue transitionally.

What it replaces

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

What changes

One registration instead of many: A single registration for establishments with ten or more workers replaces the separate registrations the thirteen legacy acts required.
Thresholds rise: Contract labour provisions apply from 50 workers (previously 20). The factory definition moves to 20 workers with power and 40 without (previously 10 and 20).
Inter-state migrant workers, redefined: The definition now includes workers who migrate on their own rather than only those recruited through a contractor, with benefit portability across states.
Appointment letters and health checks: A formal appointment letter becomes mandatory for every employee, and employers provide free annual health check-ups for workers above a notified age.
Night work for women, with consent: Women may be employed before 6am and after 7pm with their consent, subject to prescribed safety conditions — replacing the old blanket prohibitions.

What it means for compliance

The single registration, licence conditions and welfare-facility thresholds (canteens, crèches, welfare officers) consolidate here — this code drives the largest share of establishment-level duties in our catalogue.
Contract-labour licensing bites at 50 workers under the code, uniformly; an engagement of fewer is outside the licence and registration duties.
Registers of workers, safety committees and working-hour records follow the code’s rules: the OSH&WC (Central) Rules, 2026 (Forms XIII–XX) where the Centre is the appropriate Government, the state’s rules elsewhere.

Sources

Compiled from the sources above on 19 August 2026 and pending review by our legal team.

Informational only, not legal advice. Thresholds stated here are the code’s central provisions; your state’s rules may modify them — verify before acting.