The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (‘OSH Code’) was published in the Official Gazette on September 29, 2020 after receiving Presidential Assent. The OSH Code, however, is yet to come into force. 

The OSH Code is one of the four labour codes that the government has enacted for the purpose of amalgamating forty-four Central labour laws, into four Labour Codes to simplify compliance by establishments. 

The OSH Code, in this respect, sets out to regulate health and safety conditions of workers, by repealing, and therefore subsuming 13 labour laws, namely: 

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

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