[Analysis] Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 – Complete Guide | 13 Repealed Acts | Central Rules 2026

Table of Contents

1. What is the OSH Code, 2020?
2. When did the OSH Code come into force?
3. Which thirteen Acts did the OSH Code repeal?
4. What did the Central Rules, 2026 change?
5. How is the Code structured?
6. Who does the Code apply to?
7. What is in the three Schedules?
8. Which notifications have been issued so far?
9. What still has to be worked out
10. Quick answers

1. What is the OSH Code, 2020?

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 received assent on 28th September 2020. Its long title states the object plainly: an Act to consolidate and amend the laws regulating the occupational safety, health and working conditions of the persons employed in an establishment.

The word doing the work there is consolidate. This is not a fresh regulatory scheme written on empty ground. It is thirteen statutes, the oldest of them from 1948, folded into one instrument with a single set of definitions, a single registration regime, a single inspectorate and a single penalty structure.

That has a consequence which practitioners have been slower to absorb than the commencement date. Because so much of the Code re-enacts the repealed law in substantially similar language, a great deal of the case law built up over seven decades continues to govern. Where the language has shifted, it does not. Working out which is which, provision by provision, is the real task of the transition.

2. When did the OSH Code come into force?

Two dates matter.

The gap between those two dates is not a technicality. Between November 2025 and May 2026 the Code was law without most of its own central machinery. A great many of its obligations are expressed as duties to do a thing “as may be prescribed”, and until 8th May 2026 there was, at the Centre, very little prescribed.

3. Which thirteen Acts did the OSH Code repeal?

Section 143 repeals the following, and the list is worth having in front of you because it defines the reach of the Code more concretely than any summary of its scope.

1. Factories Act, 1948
2. Plantations Labour Act, 1951
3. Mines Act, 1952
4. Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955
5. Working Journalists (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958
6. Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
7. Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966
8. Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
9. Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976
10. Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979
11. Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981
12. Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986
13. Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996

Two points follow that are easy to miss.

First, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 are not on this list and are not repealed by this Code. Disputes, discipline and standing orders continue to be governed elsewhere. The commentary records the position expressly, and the Madras High Court noted it in United Labour of Federation v. Union of India [2026 LLR 135].

Second, section 143 does not operate as a clean break. Sub-section (4) applies section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 to the repeal, so accrued rights, obligations, penalties and pending proceedings survive. Inspectors appointed under the old Acts are deemed to hold office under the Code, and actions validly taken under the repealed enactments are deemed taken under the corresponding provisions of the Code.

4. What did the Central Rules, 2026 change?

The Rules run to 186 rules across fourteen chapters, with seven Annexures and twenty-seven Forms numbered Form I to Form XXVII. They were made in supersession of fifteen earlier sets of rules, including the Mines Rules 1955, the Mines Rescue Rules 1985, the Mines Vocational Training Rules 1966, the Pithead Bath Rules 1959, the Mines Creche Rules 1966, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules 1971, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Central Rules 1979, the Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Rules 1990 and the Building and Other Construction Workers (Central) Rules 1998.

The structural point is that the Rules follow the Chapter scheme of the Code, and within the health and working conditions chapter they are written separately for each class of establishment — factories, mines, building and other construction work, beedi and cigar work, motor transport, dock work and plantations each get their own cleanliness, ventilation and dust-control rules, followed by a set of common rules.

For anyone reading the Code cold, that is the single most useful thing to know. A duty expressed in one line of the Code frequently has seven different prescribed discharges depending on what kind of establishment you run.

5. How is the Code structured?

Fourteen Chapters, 143 sections, three Schedules.

Chapter XI is the heaviest by some distance. It carries forty-nine sections in eight Parts, and it is where the old sector-specific statutes have been preserved as self-contained regimes rather than merged into the general provisions.

6. Who does the Code apply to?

Applicability turns on the definition of “establishment” in section 2(1)(v) and on the separate definition of “factory” in section 2(1)(w), and the two do not use the same threshold.

• An establishment is a place where any industry, trade, business, manufacturing or occupation is carried on in which ten or more workers are employed; and separately, a motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment, audio-video production, building and other construction work or plantation employing ten or more workers.
• A mine, or a port or the vicinity of a port where dock work is carried out, is an establishment regardless of worker numbers.
• A factory, for the purposes of Chapter II, in which ten or more workers are employed is an establishment — notwithstanding the higher threshold in the definition of factory in clause (w). A unit with twelve workers using power is therefore not a factory, but it is an establishment, and it must register.
• A factory means premises where twenty or more workers work with the aid of power, or forty or more without the aid of power. Where State law fixes a different number, the State number prevails in that State until amended by the competent legislature.
• The threshold does not apply at all to establishments carrying on a hazardous or life-threatening activity notified by the Central Government.
• Part I of Chapter XI, on contract labour, applies where fifty or more contract labour are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.

Section 1(3) excludes the offices of the Central Government and the State Governments, and any ship of war of any nationality. The proviso matters: the Code does apply to contract labour engaged through a contractor in those offices, where the Government is the principal employer.

7. What is in the three Schedules?

• The First Schedule, referred to by the definition of “hazardous process” in section 2(1)(za), lists forty categories of industries involving hazardous processes — from ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy through petrochemicals and asbestos to semiconductor manufacturing, ship breaking and nano-particle industries.
• The Second Schedule, referred to by section 18(2)(f), lists seventy-three matters on which occupational safety and health standards may be declared, covering fencing of machinery, hoists and lifts, pressure plant, dock work, construction and much else.
• The Third Schedule lists twenty-nine notifiable occupational diseases, including silicosis, asbestosis, coal miners’ pneumoconiosis, noise-induced hearing loss, occupational cancer and toxic nephritis.

Section 131 empowers the Central Government to amend the Schedules by notification, so all three should be checked against the Gazette rather than relied on from a printed copy alone.

8. Which notifications have been issued so far?

A substantial body of subordinate instruments has followed enforcement. Among those already reported:

• S.O. 5321(E), 21-11-2025 — enforcement of the Code
• G.S.R. 345(E), 8-5-2026 — the Central Rules, 2026
• S.O. 2505(E) — registering officers under section 3
• S.O. 2503(E) — appellate authorities under section 4
• S.O. 2483(E) — designated authority
• S.O. 2482(E) — officers for compounding of offences under section 114
• S.O. 2484(E) — Director General of Mines Safety as Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator of Mines
• S.O. 2517(E) — maximum continuous working hours
• S.O. 2516(E) — maximum shift hours for below-ground mine workers
• S.O. 2492(E) — remuneration threshold for audio-visual workers

Forty-seven notifications and orders issued under the Code are collected in the commentary, arranged section-wise under sections 1, 2(1)(f), 3, 4, 6, 25, 34, 42, 57, 70, 72, 87, 111, 114 and 127, with dates running from 16th January 2023 to 10th July 2026.

9. What still has to be worked out

Three things are genuinely unsettled, and it is better to know that than to be told the Code is complete.

State rules. The Central Rules bind establishments for which the Central Government is the appropriate Government. States must make their own, and until they do, the position under section 143 has to be worked through case by case.

The work contract question. Part I of Chapter XI applies to an establishment employing fifty or more contract labour and to a contractor who supplies fifty or more. The definition of “contractor” in section 2(1)(n) covers two categories — the person who undertakes to produce a given result through contract labour, and the person who supplies contract labour as mere human resource. Part I is silent on whether the threshold reaches the first category in the same way as the second. The commentary flags the gap rather than papering over it.

The challenges. The working of the labour codes is before several High Courts. Tech Mahindra Ltd. v. Union of India [2026 LLR 128 (Bom.)], United Labour of Federation v. Union of India [2026 LLR 135 (Mad.)], N.A. Sebastian v. Union of India [2026 LLR 256 (Del.)] and Glastronix LLP v. Glastronix Karmika Sangha [2026 LLR 390 (Karn.)] are all recent, and the transitional position is still being shaped.

10. Quick answers

What is the OSH Code?

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (37 of 2020) is the central enactment consolidating thirteen labour statutes on safety, health, welfare and working conditions. It runs to 143 sections in fourteen Chapters with three Schedules.

What is the full form of OSH Code?

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. It is also written as the OSH & WC Code or the OSHWC Code.

Is the OSH Code implemented in India?

Yes. It was enforced generally from 21st November 2025 by Notification S.O. 5321(E), and the Central Rules were notified on 8th May 2026 by G.S.R. 345(E).

How many Acts did the OSH Code replace?

Thirteen, listed in section 143 — beginning with the Factories Act 1948 and ending with the Building and Other Construction Workers Act 1996.

Does the OSH Code repeal the Industrial Disputes Act?

No. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 are not repealed by this Code.

What is the worker threshold under the OSH Code?

Ten or more workers for an establishment; twenty with power or forty without for a factory; fifty or more contract labour for Part I of Chapter XI. Mines, ports and dock work are covered without any threshold, as are notified hazardous activities.

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 is treated section by section in Taxmann’s Law & Practice Relating to Occupational Safety Health and Working Conditions Code by Sunil Kumar Tripathi, Senior Advocate — 1,041 numbered analytical paragraphs, a provision-by-provision comparison with the thirteen repealed Acts running to 211 parallel-column tables, close to 350 judicial decisions, and the Central Rules 2026 reproduced at the section each rule serves. The commentary states the law as on 15th August 2026.

The statute, rules, notifications and case law are available together on Taxmann.com | Research — Labour Laws, with a dedicated page for the OSH & WC Code, 2020.

Related reading: key highlights of the OSH working conditions rules · a guide to Indian labour laws · draft dock work safety regulations under the OSH Code.

Law stated as on 10 September 2026. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 was brought into force generally with effect from 21 November 2025, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026 were notified on 8 May 2026.