Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020
(1) The following enactments shall stand repealed on and from the dates the notification referred to in sub-section (2) of section 1 is issued, namely:— (a) The Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948); (b) The Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (69 of 1951); (c) The Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952); (d) The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955); (e) The Working Journalists (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958 (29 of 1958); (f) The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961 (27 of 1961); (g) The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966 (32 of 1966); (h) The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (37 of 1970); (i) The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 (11 of 1976); (j) The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 (30 of 1979); (k) The Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981 (50 of 1981); (l) The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986 (54 of 1986); (m) The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 (27 of 1996). (2) Every Chief Inspector, Additional Chief Inspector, Joint Chief Inspector, Deputy Chief Inspector, Inspector and every other officer appointed for the purposes under any of the provisions of the enactments repealed by this Code, shall be deemed to have been appointed under this Code for such purposes under this Code. (3) Notwithstanding repeal under sub-section (1), anything done or any action taken under the enactments so repealed (including any rule, regulation, bye-laws, notification, nomination, appointment, order or direction made there under) shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of this Code and shall remain in force to the extent they are not contrary to the provisions of this Code till they are repealed by the Central Government. (4) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (2), provisions of section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897) shall apply to the repeal of such enactments. THE FIRST SCHEDULE [See section 2(za)] List of Industries involving hazardous processes: 1. Ferrous Metallurgical Industries — Integrated Iron and Steel — Ferro-alloys — Special Steels. 2. Non-ferrous metallurgical Industries — Primary Metallurgical Industries, namely, zinc, lead, copper, manganese and aluminium. 3. Foundries (ferrous and non-ferrous) — Castings and forgings including cleaning or smoothening/roughening by sand and shot blasting. 4. Coal (including coke) industries — Coal, Lignite, Coke and like other substances — Fuel Gases (including Coal Gas, Producer Gas, Water Gas). 5. Power Generating Industries. 6. Pulp and paper (including paper products) industries. 7. Fertiliser Industries — Nitrogenous — Phosphatic — Mixed. 8. Cement Industries — Portland Cement (including slag cement, puzzolona cement and their products). 9. Petroleum Industries — Oil Refining — Lubricating Oils and Greases. 10. Petro-chemical Industries. 11. Drugs and Pharmaceutical Industries — Narcotics, Drugs and Pharmaceuticals. 12. Fermentation Industries (Distilleries and Breweries). 13. Rubber (Synthetic) Industries. 14. Paints and Pigment Industries. 15. Leather Tanning Industries. 16. Electro-plating Industries. 17. Chemical Industries. (a) Coke Oven by-products and Coaltar Distillation products: (b) Industrial Gases (nitrogen, oxygen, acetylene, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide, halogenated hydrocarbon, ozone, or any like gases); (c) Industrial Carbon; (d) Alkalies and Acids; (e) Chromates and dichromates; (f) Lead and its compounds; (g) Electrochemicals (metallic sodium, potassium and magnesium, chlorates, perchlorates and peroxides); (h) Electrothermal produces (artificial abrasive, calcium carbide); (i) Nitrogenous compounds (cyanides, cyanamides and other nitrogenous compounds); (j) Phosphorous and its compounds; (k) Halogens and Halogenated compounds (Chlorine, Fluorine, Bromine and Iodine); (l) Explosives (including industrial explosives and detonators and fuses). 18. Insecticides, Fungicides, Herbicides and other Pesticides Industries. 19. Synthetic Resin and plastics. 20. Man made Fibre (Cellulosic and non-cellulosic) industry. 21. Manufacture and repair of electrical accumulators. 22. Glass and Ceramics. 23. Grinding or glazing of metals. 24. Manufacture, handling and processing of asbestos and its products. 25. Extraction of oils and fats from vegetable and animal sources. 26. Manufacture, handling and use of benzene and substances containing benzene. 27. Manufacturing processes and operations involving carbon disulphide. 28. Dyes and Dyestuff including their intermediates. 29. Highly flammable liquids and gases. 30. Printing and dyeing on fabrics in textiles and plywood and laminate manufacturing process. 31. Process involving usage of radium or Radioactive Substances. 32. Stone Crushing industry. 33. Extraction of Oil and Raw material from the scrap tyres. 34. Cigarette manufacturing industry. 35. Ship breaking industry. 36. Hazardous waste and e-waste processing plants. 37. Semiconductor manufacturing industry. 38. Styrene manufacturing, handling and processing industry. 39. Nano-particles utilising industry. 40. Manufacturing, processing, preparation and utilisation of Mercury or Compounds of Mercury, Lead Tetra-ethyl, Manganese, Arsenic, Chrome, Aliphatic series, Beryllium, Phosgene and Isocyanates. THE SECOND SCHEDULE [See section 18(2)(f)] List of matters: (1) fencing of machinery; (2) work on or near machinery in motion; (3) employment of adolescents on dangerous machines; (4) striking gear and devices for cutting off power; (5) self acting machines; (6) casing of new machinery; (7) prohibition of employment of women, children and adolescent near cotton openers; (8) hoists and lifts; (9) lifting machines, chains, ropes and lifting tackles; (10) revolving machinery; (11) pressure plant; (12) floors, stairs and means of access; (13) pits, sumps, openings in floors and other similar indentation of area; (14) safety officers; (15) protection of eyes; (16) precautions against dangerous fumes, gases, etc.; (17) precautions regarding the use of portable electric light; (18) explosive or inflammable dust, gas, and other like dusts or gases; (19) safety committee; (20) power to require specifications of defective parts or tests of stability; (21) safety of buildings and machinery; (22) maintenance of buildings; (23) prohibition in certain cases of danger; (24) notice in respect of accidents; (25) court of inquiry in case of accidents; (26) safety management in plantation; (27) the general requirement relating to the construction, equipments and maintenance for the safety of working places on shore, ship, dock, structure and other places at which any dock work is carried on; (28) the safety of any regular approaches over a dock, wharf, quay or other places which dock worker have to use for going for work and for fencing of such places and projects; (29) the efficient lighting of all areas of dock, ship, any other vessel, dock structure or working places where any dock work is carried on and of all approaches to such places to which dock workers are required to go in the course of their employment; (30) adequate ventilation and suitable temperature in every building or an enclosure on ship where dock workers are employed; (31) the fire and explosion preventions and protection; (32) safe means of access to ships, holds, stagings, equipment, appliances and other working places; (33) the construction, maintenance and use of lifting and other cargo handling appliances and services, such as, pallets containing or supporting loads and provision of safety appliances on them, if necessary; (34) the safety of workers employed in freight container terminals of other terminals for handing unitized cargo; (35) the fencing of machinery, live electrical conductors, steam pipes and hazardous openings; (36) the construction, maintenance and use of staging; (37) the rigging and use of ship's derricks; (38) the testing, examination, inspection and certification as appropriate of' loose gears including chains and ropes and of slings and other lifting devices used in the dock work; (39) the precautions to be taken to facilitate escape of workers when employed in a hold, bin, hopper or the like or between decks of a hold while handing coal of other bulk cargo; (40) the measures to be taken in order to prevent dangerous methods of' working in the stacking, unstacking, stowing and unstowing of cargo or handling in connection therewith; (41) the handling of dangerous substances and working, in dangerous or harmful environments and the precautions to be taken in connection with such handling; (42) the work in connection with cleaning, chipping, painting, operations and precautions to be taken in connection with such work; (43) the employment of persons for handling cargo, handling appliances, power operated batch covers or other power operated ship's equipment such as, door in the hull of a ship, ramp, retraceable car deck or similar equipment or to give signals to the drivers of such machinery; (44) the transport of dock workers; (45) the precautions to be taken to protect dock workers against harmful effects of excessive noise, vibration and air pollution at the work place; (46) protective equipment and protective clothing; (47) the sanitary, washing and welfare facilities; (48) the medical supervision; (49) the ambulance rooms, first aid and rescue facilities and arrangements for the removal of dock workers to the nearest place of treatment; (50) the investigation of occupational accidents, dangerous occurrences and diseases, specifying such diseases and the forms of' notices, the persons and authorities to whom, they are to be furnished, the particulars to be contained in them and the time within which they are to be submitted; (51) the submission of statement of accidents, man-days lost, volume of cargo handled and particulars of dock workers. (52) the safe means of access to, and the safety of, any working place, including the provision of suitable and sufficient scaffolding at various stages when work cannot be safely done from the ground or from any part of a building or from a ladder or such other means of support; (53) the precautions to be taken in connection with the demolition of the whole or any substantial part of a building or other structure under the supervision of a competent person for the avoidance of danger from collapse of any building or other structure while removing any part of the framed building or other structure by shoring or otherwise; (54) the handling or use of explosive under the control of competent persons so that there is no exposure to the risk of injury from explosion or from flying material; (55) the erection installation, use and maintenance of transporting equipment, such as locomotives, trucks, wagons and other vehicles and trailers and appointment of competent persons to drive or operate such equipment; (56) the erection, installation, use and maintenance of hoists, lifting appliances and lifting gear including periodical testing and examination and heat treatment where necessary, precautions to be taken while raising or lowering loads, restrictions on carriage of persons and appointment of competent persons on hoists or other lifting appliances; (57) the adequate and suitable lighting of every workplace and approach thereto, of every place where raising or lowering operations with the use of hoists, lifting appliances or lifting gears are in progress and of all openings dangerous to building workers employed; (58) the precautions to be taken to prevent inhalation of dust, fumes, gases or vapours during any grinding, cleaning, spraying or manipulation of any material and steps to be taken to secure and maintain adequate ventilation of every working place or confined space; (59) the measures to be taken during stacking or unstacking, stowing or unstowing of materials or goods or handling in connection therewith; (60) the safeguarding of machinery including the fencing of every fly-wheel and every moving part of prime mover and every part of transmission or other machinery, unless it is in such a position or of such construction as to be safe to every worker working only of the operations and as if it were securely fenced; (61) the safe handling and use of plant, including tools and equipment operated by compressed air; (62) the precaution to be taken in case of fire; (63) the limits of weight to be lifted or moved by workers; (64) the safe transport of workers to or from any workplace by water and provision of means for rescue from drowning; (65) the steps to be taken to prevent danger to workers from live electric wires or apparatus including electrical machinery and tools and from overhead wires; (66) the keeping of safety nets, safety sheets and safety belts where the special nature or the circumstances of work render them necessary for the safety of the workers; (67) the standards to be complied with regard to scaffolding, ladders and stairs, lifting appliances, ropes, chains and accessories, earth moving equipment and floating operational equipments; (68) the precautions to be taken with regard to pile driving, concrete work, work with hot asphalt, tar or other similar things, insulation work, demolition operations, excavation, underground construction and handling materials; (69) the safety policy, that is to say, a policy relating to steps to be taken to ensure the safety and health of the building workers, the administrative arrangements therefore and the matters connected therewith, to be framed by the employers and contractors for tile operations to be carried on in a building or other construction work; (70) emergency standards for enforcement of suitable standards in respect of hazardous processes in a factory; (71) the maximum permissible threshold limits of exposure of chemical and toxic substances in manufacturing processes (whether hazardous or otherwise) in any factory; (72) lightning; and (73) any other matter which the Central Government considers under the circumstance for better working condition for safety at the workplace. THE THIRD SCHEDULE [See section 12(1)] List of Notifiable Diseases: 1. Lead poisoning, including poisoning by any preparation or compound of lead or their sequelae. 2. Lead-tetra-ethyle poisoning. 3. Phosphorus poisoning or its sequelae. 4. Mercury poisoning or its sequelae. 5. Manganese poisoning or its sequelae. 6. Arsenic poisoning or its sequelae. 7. Poisoning by nitrous fumes. 8. Carbon bisulphide poisoning. 9. Benzene poisoning, including poisoning by any of its homologues, their nitro or amido derivatives or its sequelae. 10. Chrome ulceration or its sequelae. 11. Anthrax. 12. Silicosis. 13. Poisoning by halogens or halogen derivatives of the hydrocarbons of the aliphatic series. 14. Pathological manifestations due to— (a) radium or other radio-active substances; (b) X-rays. 15. Primary epitheliomatous cancer of the skin. 16. Toxic anaemia. 17. Toxic jaundice due to poisonous substances. 18. Oil acne or dermatitis due to mineral oils and compounds containing mineral oil base. 19. Byssionosis. 20. Asbestosis. 21. Occupational or contact dermatitis caused by direct contact with chemicals and paints. These are of two types, that is, primary irritants and allergic sensitizers. 22. Noise induced hearing loss (exposure to high noise levels). 23. Beriyllium poisoning. 24. Carbon monoxide poisoning. 25. Coal miners’ pneumoconiosis. 26. Phosgene poisoning. 27. Occupational cancer. 28. Isocyanates poisoning. 29. Toxic nephritis. STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS The Second National Commission on Labour, which submitted its report in June, 2002, had recommended that the existing set of labour laws should be broadly amalgamated into the following groups, namely:.— (a) industrial relations; (b) wages; (c) social security; (d) safety; and (e) welfare and working conditions. 2. In pursuance of the recommendations of the said Commission and the deliberations made in the tripartite meeting comprising of the Government, employers' and industry representatives, it has been decided to bring the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. The proposed legislation intends to amalgamate, simplify and rationalise the relevant provisions of the following thirteen Central labour enactments relating to occupation, safety, health and working conditions of workers, namely:— 1. The Factories Act, 1948; 2. The Plantations Labour Act, 1951; 3. The Mines Act, 1952; 4. The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1955; 5. The Working Journalists (Fixation of Rates of Wages) Act, 1958; 6. The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961; 7. The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966; 8. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; 9. The Sales Promotion Employees (Condition of Service) Act, 1976; 10. The Inter-State Migrant workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979; 11. The Cine Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act, 1981; 12. The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986; and 13. The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. 3. In the light of above, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha on the 23rd day of July, 2019 and the same was referred to the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. The said Committee recommended several substantive modifications to the said Code. In addition to the said modifications, the Government of India has also proposed certain changes to the said Code in the light of COVID-19 Pandemic. In view of this, the Government of India has decided to withdraw pending the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019 and to introduce the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. The proposed Code simplifies, amalgamates and rationalises the provisions of the aforesaid thirteen enactments with certain important changes which, inter alia, are as under:— (i) to impart flexibility in adapting technological changes and dynamic factors, in the matters relating to health, safety, welfare and working conditions of workers; (ii) to apply the provisions of the proposed Code for all establishments having ten or more workers, other than the establishments relating to mines and docks; (iii) to provide the concept of “one registration” for all establishments having ten or more employees. However, for the applicability of all other provisions of the Code in respect of factories, except registration, the threshold has been fixed twenty workers in a factory (with power) and forty workers (without power); (iv) to include the journalist working in electronic media such as in e-paper establishment or in radio or in other media in the definition of “working journalists”; (v) to provide for issuing of appointment letter mandatorily by the employer of an establishment to promote formalisation in employment; (vi) to provide free of cost annual health check-ups for employees above the specified age in all or certain class of establishments by which it would be possible to detect diseases at an early stage for effective and proper treatment of the employees; (vii) to make the provisions relating to Inter-State Migrant Workers applicable on the establishment in which ten or more migrant workers are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months and also provide that a Inter-State Migrant may register himself asan Inter-State Migrant Worker on the portal on the basis of self-declaration and Aadhaar; (viii) an Inter-State Migrant Worker has been provided with the portability to avail benefits in the destination State in respect of ration and availing benefits of building and other construction worker cess; (ix) to constitute the National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board to give recommendations to the Central Government on policy matters, relating to occupational safety, health and working conditions of workers; (x) to constitute the State Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board at the State level to advice the State Government on such matters arising out of the administration of the proposed Code; (xi) to make a provision for the constitution of Safety Committee by the appropriate Government in any establishment or class of establishments; (xii) to employ women in all establishments for all types of work. They can also work at night, that is, beyond 7 PM and before 6 AM subject to the conditions relating to safety, holiday, working hours and their consent; (xiii) to make provision of “common license” for factory, contract labour and beedi and cigar establishments and to introduce the concept of a single all India license for a period of five years to engage the contract labour; (xv) to provide overriding powers to the Central Government to regulate general safety and health of persons residing in whole or part of India in the event of declaration of epidemic or pandemic or disaster; (xvi) to make provision for Social Security Fund for the welfare of unorganised workers; and (xvii) to make provision for adjudging the penalties imposed under the Code. 4. The notes on clause explain in detail the various provisions contained in the Code. 5. The Code seeks to achieve the aforesaid objectives. SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR. NEW DELHI; The 14th September, 2020.