OSH Code 2020 — Framework & Phased Rollout Explainer (2026)

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 ('OSH Code') came into force on 21 November 2025 via notification S.O. 5321(E), consolidating 13 legacy central labour-safety statutes into a single framework. Draft Central Rules (G.S.R. 934(E), 30 December 2025) remain in consultation, and only Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala have notified state OSH Rules; Delhi and Tamil Nadu are yet to finalise theirs. Until state rules are in force, legacy Acts and their rules continue to govern day-to-day compliance.

TL;DR for factory occupiers and founders

The OSH Code is now law nationwide, but on-the-ground enforcement is still a patchwork. Factories in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala now operate under the new state OSH Rules 2025; elsewhere, the old state Factories Rules continue to apply until each state notifies. All employers — regardless of state — must issue appointment letters to every worker who did not have one on or before 21 February 2026, conduct free annual health checks for workers aged 40+ (lowered to 45+ in Gujarat), and prepare to file a single unified annual return on the Shram Suvidha portal. Central-sphere establishments (railways, mines, major ports, banks, PSUs) should track the draft Central Rules 2025 (targeted for notification around April 2026).

What the OSH Code does

The OSH Code consolidates 13 central labour-safety statutes — Factories Act 1948; Mines Act 1952; Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act 1986; Plantations Labour Act 1951; Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970; Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979; Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996; Working Journalists Act 1955; Motor Transport Workers Act 1961; Sales Promotion Employees Act 1976; Beedi and Cigar Workers Act 1966; Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act 1981; and the Working Journalists (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act 1958 — into one statute with 143 sections across 14 chapters and three schedules.

Chapter I sets scope, definitions and registration; Chapter II creates employer and employee duty frameworks; Chapter III notifies occupational safety and health standards; Chapter IV regulates health, safety and working conditions (absorbing most Factories Act safety chapters); Chapter V imposes welfare-facility obligations; Chapter VI covers working hours, leave and overtime; Chapters VII–XII carry sector-specific regimes (factories, mines, docks, BOCW, plantations, contract labour and inter-state migrant workers); Chapter XIII provides inspection, appeals, penalties, adjudication; and Chapter XIV contains miscellaneous provisions including rule-making power (Section 133), delegation (Section 134) and repeal-and-savings (Section 142).

The Code preserves state-subject character for factories, motor transport, plantations and beedi/cigar establishments: under Section 2(1)(d) OSH Code, the 'appropriate Government' for these is the State Government of the state in which the establishment is situated. For railways, mines, oil fields, major ports, air transport, banking, insurance, central PSUs, autonomous bodies and telecommunications, the Central Government is the appropriate government.

The November 2025 commencement: what actually happened

On 21 November 2025, the Ministry of Labour & Employment issued four coordinated commencement notifications for all four labour codes. For the OSH Code, notification S.O. 5321(E) (File No. S-11025/07/2025-IR(PL)) was signed by Joint Secretary Deepika Kachhal and appointed 21 November 2025 as the date on which the entire Code comes into force. This is different from the companion Wage Code and Social Security Code commencement notifications, which appointed 21 November 2025 only for specified sections. The OSH Code's full commencement is a deliberate signalling step: the statutory scaffolding is in place, even though the delegated-rule layer is not yet complete.

The Ministry, through PIB factsheet ID 150475 (22 November 2025), clarified the practical position: because labour is a Concurrent List subject (Entry 24 List III, Schedule VII of the Constitution), every state must notify its own OSH Rules before the Code is fully enforceable in that state. In the interim, "the relevant provisions of the existing labour Acts and their respective rules, regulations, notifications, standards, schemes, etc. will continue to remain in effect." This is the interpretive crux of the transition period: the old Acts are formally repealed by Section 142 OSH Code but continue to operate for enforcement purposes via general-clauses-act savings until state rules are in force.

Central Rules 2025 — draft status

The Central Government pre-published the draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2025 via G.S.R. 934(E) dated 30 December 2025 on the Chief Labour Commissioner's portal (clc.gov.in/clc/node/789) and through the Ministry of Labour & Employment. A 45-day consultation window opened, with objections due by 28 January 2026 addressed to the Under Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi. The public notice invited written objections from affected stakeholders and email submissions to fasli@fgfasli.nic.in.

The Central Rules cover Central-sphere establishments — railways, mines, oil fields, major ports, air transport, banks, PSUs, autonomous bodies, telecommunications and contractors therein. Key operational provisions in the draft include:

• Electronic registration: Form I on the labour facilitation portal or the Shram Suvidha portal; digital certificate in Form II within 7 days, with deemed registration if the Registering Officer does not act within that window.
• Commencement/cessation notice: Form IV within 30 days, certifying payment of worker dues and clearance of hazardous substances.
• Annual health checks: free, annually, within 120 days of the calendar year start, for every worker aged 40+, by a qualified medical practitioner, recorded in Form V.
• Appointment letters: mandatory for every worker; Code-compliant template covering job details, wages, social security, hours, leave; three-month grace window from Code commencement (expired 21 February 2026 for pre-existing workers).
• Unified annual return: Forms IX and IXA filed on the MoLE web portal on or before 28/29 February each year.

Government sources (reported in MoLE statements and PIB factsheets) have indicated a target of 1 April 2026 for final Central Rules notification, but as of 22 April 2026 the rules are still in draft form.

Transition from 13 legacy Acts

The OSH Code subsumes 13 central labour-safety statutes. Section 142 provides for repeal-and-savings; existing licences, rules, standards, forms, orders and committees continue to have effect until superseded by corresponding provisions under the Code. The mapping below is the operative transition chart for practitioners advising occupiers:

The Building & Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996 is not repealed: the cess-collection machinery is preserved as a standalone fiscal statute, even though BOCW substantive provisions migrate into Chapter XI OSH Code.

Who is affected and who is not

Four actor-types carry the bulk of OSH Code duties:

1. Factory occupier (Section 2(1)(zs) OSH Code) — the person who has ultimate control over the affairs of a factory. In a company, any director (other than an independent director under Section 149(6) Companies Act 2013) is deemed occupier. Threshold: a factory is any premises with 20+ workers with power or 40+ without power (Section 2(1)(w)). State laws may continue to specify lower thresholds where already in force.
2. Employer (Section 2(1)(u) OSH Code) — a broader category that includes the occupier, mine owner/agent/manager (Section 67), principal employer, contractor, and legal representative of a deceased employer. Chapter II duties apply to every employer.
3. Principal employer (Section 2(1)(zz) OSH Code) — the owner or occupier in a factory, the owner/agent in a mine, or the person responsible for supervision and control in any other establishment. Key Contract Labour Chapter XI duties attach here.
4. Building & other construction work 'employer' (Section 2(1)(h) OSH Code) — the person at whose instance and for whom building or other construction work is carried on. BOCW-migration duties under Chapter XI apply here.

The Code does not apply to offices of the Central or State Government or ships of war — Section 1(3) OSH Code. It applies to contract labour engaged through contractors in government offices, where the government is the principal employer.

State variations

Because the OSH Code preserves state rule-making power (Section 2(1)(d) + Section 133 OSH Code), each state must issue its own OSH Rules for the Code to operate in state-sphere establishments (factories, plantations, motor transport, beedi/cigar, newspaper establishments). The April 2026 snapshot:

Gujarat's revised Form 2 for MSIHC Rule 7 offsite emergency-plan submission (effective 1 July 2026) and its lower annual health-check trigger age (45) are material departures multi-state occupiers must track. Karnataka's esuraksha portal has been operational since 2024 and was repurposed for OSH Rules 2025 electronic registration.

State rules for Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh are at varying stages — Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have notified rules under all four Codes; West Bengal has publicly resisted implementation. Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and several others are mid-transition.

Practical implications

The phased transition creates four immediate compliance questions for any establishment employing 10+ workers:

(1) Which rules apply to my establishment today? For Central-sphere establishments (railways, mines, major ports, banks, telecom, PSUs) — the pre-2020 Acts and rules continue until Central OSH Rules 2025 are finalised. For state-sphere factories — the state OSH Rules 2025 if notified (Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala), or the old state Factories Rules (Maharashtra draft, Tamil Nadu draft, Delhi, rest of India).

(2) Have I met the appointment-letter deadline? Section 6(1)(f) OSH Code requires employers to issue appointment letters to every worker within three months of Code commencement — i.e., by 21 February 2026. This is a now-expired statutory deadline. Non-compliance is actionable under Section 94 OSH Code (penalty up to ₹50,000 for first offence and up to ₹2 lakh for subsequent).

(3) Do I need to re-register under the new Code? Under Section 3(8) OSH Code, any establishment already registered under any Central labour law is deemed registered under the OSH Code, subject to updating registration particulars with the Registering Officer within such time as prescribed. In practice, migration is triggered when the relevant state rules are notified — Gujarat occupiers now re-register on the state portal within 6 months of the state rules coming into effect.

(4) Which penalties apply? Until state rules are in force, continuing prosecutions under Section 92 Factories Act 1948 (now repealed but saved for continuation) apply to pre-21 November 2025 contraventions. Fresh prosecutions for contraventions after 21 November 2025 fall under Chapter XIII OSH Code. The Code also makes first-time offences punishable with fine only compoundable at 50% of the maximum fine, and fine-or-imprisonment offences compoundable at 75% — a significant shift from the Factories Act penalty regime.

Enforcement, penalties and appeals

Section 34 OSH Code creates a new cadre — Inspector-cum-Facilitator and Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator — replacing the Factories Act Inspector of Factories cadre. The dual 'facilitator' role is designed to shift the inspection posture from pure prosecution to a mix of advisory and enforcement. Sections 93–96 provide penalty provisions; Section 97 offers compounding at prescribed percentages; Sections 98–99 govern jurisdiction of courts and procedure.

Courts, on conviction for contravention of any duty resulting in serious bodily injury or death, are empowered to direct that at least 50% of any fine imposed be paid as compensation to the victim or legal heirs — a new victim-compensation right absent under the Factories Act. Appeals from Inspector orders go to the Appellate Officer (Section 4 OSH Code) and thereafter to High Court under Article 226 / 227 Constitution.

Occupier / founder checklist

• Confirm which rule set applies today: Central Rules draft, state OSH Rules (if notified in Gujarat/Karnataka/Kerala), or legacy state Factories Rules (everywhere else). Log the answer per establishment.
• Audit appointment-letter compliance against Section 6(1)(f) OSH Code for every worker on payroll as on 21 November 2025 (the three-month window expired 21 February 2026).
• Set the annual-health-check calendar for workers aged 40+ (45+ in Gujarat) — 120-day window from the start of each calendar year, Form V record-keeping.
• Map licences for migration: identify each existing Factories Act / BOCW / Contract Labour licence, its expiry date, and its OSH Code equivalent registration/licence for planning re-registration.
• Track the state rule notification for your principal state of operations weekly — dish.gujarat.gov.in, esuraksha.karnataka.gov.in, labour.maharashtra.gov.in, dish.tn.gov.in, labour.delhi.gov.in, clc.gov.in.

Frequently asked questions

Is the OSH Code a single, standalone compliance obligation or does it coexist with other legal regimes? The OSH Code coexists with the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 framework (MSIHC Rules 1989, Hazardous Waste Rules 2016), the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991, the Electricity Act 2003 and CEA Safety Regulations 2023, the Boilers Act 2025 and IBR 1950, the Mines Act's residual regime, and state labour welfare legislation. OSH Code Chapter VII does not displace environmental or electricity-safety regulators; occupiers of hazardous-chemical facilities continue to need MSIHC Schedule 1 compliance and MoEF&CC consent.

What should in-house legal teams prioritise for the next two quarters? Two items: map every live licence, registration and labour compliance to its OSH Code successor path, and track state rule notifications weekly for any state where the company has operations. Build a transition playbook per establishment type (factory, BOCW site, contract labour deployment, motor transport depot, plantation, newspaper establishment). Once Central Rules 2025 are notified, the Central-sphere establishments require immediate migration to the shramsuvidha.gov.in portal or its successor.

Does the OSH Code cover gig and platform workers? No — gig and platform workers are covered under Chapters IX and X of the Code on Social Security, 2020 (Act 36 of 2020), a separate labour code. The OSH Code's scope is limited to employees, workers, contract labour, inter-state migrant workers and other categorised workers in the 13 subsumed establishment-types. Platform workers in the meaning of Section 2(60) SS Code are not within OSH Code coverage.

Sources (Tier 1 only)

• Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — indiacode.nic.in
• PIB Factsheet on OSH Code, 2020 — pib.gov.in
• Draft OSH (Central) Rules 2025 — clc.gov.in/clc/node/789
• Ministry of Labour & Employment — labour codes page — labour.gov.in/labour-codes
• Gujarat DISH — dish.gujarat.gov.in
• Maharashtra Labour Department (implementation of Labour Codes) — labour.maharashtra.gov.in
• Karnataka e-Suraksha — esuraksha.karnataka.gov.in
• Tamil Nadu DISH — dish.tn.gov.in
• Delhi Labour Department — labour.delhi.gov.in
• Standing Committee on Labour, Report on OSH Code 2019 — eparlib.sansad.in