The OSH Code, 2020 consolidates 13 central labour laws on workplace safety, working hours, and conditions, applicable to factories, mines, plantations, contract labour, and most workplaces with 10+ workers.
The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code) is the fourth and largest of India’s labour codes, consolidating 13 central laws governing workplace safety, working hours, leave, welfare facilities, contract labour, and inter-state migrant workers. It received Presidential assent on 28 September 2020. The Code applies to factories, mines, plantations, motor transport, construction sites, dock work, and most establishments with 10 or more workers, replacing a fragmented inspectorate and licensing regime with a unified safety and welfare framework. See the India labour codes 2025 guide for the full four-code overview.
The Code subsumes 13 central statutes: Factories Act 1948; Mines Act 1952; Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act 1986; Building and Other Construction Workers Act 1996; Plantations Labour Act 1951; Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970; Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979; Working Journalists Acts 1955 and 1958; Motor Transport Workers Act 1961; Sales Promotion Employees Act 1976; Beedi and Cigar Workers Act 1966; and the Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act 1981.
The OSH Code has been notified but not yet brought fully into operational force. The Centre has issued the OSH Code (Central) Rules, 2020 in draft form. As of 2026, around 25 States have published draft rules and many have notified them; final pan-India enforcement is pending coordination across the four labour codes. Employers should treat the Code as imminent and align HR, EHS, and contract-labour processes accordingly.
Section 25 prescribes daily and weekly hour limits:
The Centre has indicated that the OT cap may be raised to 125 hours per quarter under the Central Rules (up from 50 hours under the Factories Act). Several States have already notified higher OT limits (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra) in line with this. Employers must check the State-specific OT cap applicable to each establishment.
Failure to grant rest invites prosecution under the Code regardless of the worker’s consent.
Section 32 standardises earned leave:
Section 43 expressly permits women to work in all establishments and at night (between 7 PM and 6 AM), subject to:
This is a major liberalisation from the Factories Act, which restricted women’s night work in many sectors.
Section 3 mandates a single common registration for any establishment covered by the Code, replacing multiple registrations under the 13 repealed Acts. A common digital portal (Shram Suvidha) enables employers to register, file returns, and obtain licences for factories, contract labour, beedi & cigar, and other categories under one window. This sits alongside the state-level Shops and Establishments Act registrations that continue to apply.
Chapter XI updates the Contract Labour regime:
Section 60–63 strengthen migrant worker protections:
The Code introduces graded penalties:
Omnivoo’s EOR platform operates within the OSH Code, 2020 framework. Working-hour, OT, and earned-leave configurations match the Code’s caps; female employees on night shifts have consent and transport flows built in; contract-labour deployments are tracked against the 50-worker licence threshold; and migrant-worker journey-allowance entitlements are computed automatically. Once States notify their final OSH rules, Omnivoo updates registers, returns, and the unified-registration filings without any change on the employer’s side.
A time-bound employment contract where the employee receives all statutory benefits from day one, with the relationship ending automatically on the specified date.
An industrial dispute is a disagreement between employers and workers (or between workers themselves) over employment, terms of employment, or working conditions, as defined under Section 2(k) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and now subsumed by the Industrial Relations Code 2020.
The legally mandated lowest compensation an employer must pay workers, set by central and state governments in India based on skill level, sector, and geography.
A notice period is the mandatory duration between an employee's resignation or termination and their last working day, during which the employment relationship continues.
The Shops and Establishments Act is a state-level labor law governing working conditions, hours, leave, and wages for all commercial establishments in India.
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