Inter-State migrant workers under the OSH Code

Labour and Industrial Law II · Unit V · Topic 16 of 18 · 6 min read

Part II of Chapter XI of the OSH Code 2020, which replaced the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979: who is an inter-State migrant worker, the ten-worker threshold, registration and the contractor's licence, the employer's duties, journey allowance, ration portability, the helpline and the national database, and the Asiad and 2021 migrant labourers cases.

← All Labour and Industrial Law II topics Past papers

On this page

1. Who is an inter-State migrant worker
2. Applicability (section 59)
3. Registration and the contractor s licence
4. Duties of the employer and contractor (section 60)
5. Facilities and benefits
6. The case law
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The background. The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 grew out of the dadan system in Odisha, under which sardars recruited workers for distant projects with promises they did not keep. The Act regulated the contractor who recruited in one State for work in another. It was rarely enforced, and the exodus of migrant workers during the 2020 lockdown showed how few were registered anywhere. The OSH Code repeals the Act (section 143(1)(j)) and deals with migrants in Part II of Chapter XI (sections 59 to 65), together with the definition in section 2(1)(zf) and the database in section 21(2).

1. Who is an inter-State migrant worker

Section 2(1)(zf) [ISMW Act, s. 2(1)(e)] defines an inter-State migrant worker as a person employed in an establishment who:

has been recruited, directly by the employer or through a contractor, in one State for employment in an establishment in another State; or
has come on his own from one State and obtained employment in another (the “destination State”), or has later changed establishment within it,

and who draws wages not exceeding Rs 18,000 a month or a higher notified amount. The 1979 Act covered only workers recruited through a contractor; the Code covers workers recruited by the employer directly and those who migrate on their own, which is the larger number. The wage ceiling is new. Because “contract labour” in section 2(1)(m) includes inter-State migrant workers, a migrant engaged through a contractor also has the protection of Part I (licensing, wages, welfare).

2. Applicability (section 59)

Part II applies to every establishment in which ten or more inter-State migrant workers are or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months [ISMW Act, s. 1(4): five or more]. The threshold has doubled, so smaller employers are now outside Part II, though the general provisions of the Code still apply to them if they are establishments.

3. Registration and the contractor’s licence

Under the 1979 Act the principal employer registered the establishment (s. 4) and the contractor needed a licence from the home State and the destination State (s. 8); the contractor also had to issue each worker a passbook with his photograph and details (s. 12). Under the Code there is no separate migrant registration or licence:

the application for registration of an establishment under section 3(2) must contain information on the employment of inter-State migrant workers;
a contractor who supplies migrant workers needs the contract labour licence under section 47 if Part I applies, and his application must give the number of inter-State migrant workers (sections 48(1) and 119(2)(b));
the licence is issued electronically, may be all-India, and is valid for five years.

The January 2026 question on “licensing of contractors under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act” is now answered by section 47 read with sections 48 and 119, with the old section 8 in brackets.

4. Duties of the employer and contractor (section 60)

Every contractor or employer of an establishment employing inter-State migrant workers must:

ensure suitable conditions of work, bearing in mind that the worker is working away from his own State;
in case of a fatal accident or serious bodily injury, report it to the specified authorities of both States and to the worker’s next of kin; and
extend to him all benefits available to other workers of the establishment, including benefits under the ESI and EPF Acts (the subject of Chapters IV and III of the Code on Social Security, 2020), and the free annual health check under section 6(1)(c).

5. Facilities and benefits

Journey allowance (section 61) [ISMW Act, s. 15]: the employer must pay, once a year, a lump sum fare for a to-and-fro journey to the worker’s native place, subject to rules on minimum service, periodicity and class of travel. The old Act paid journey allowance at the beginning and end of employment.
Displacement allowance [ISMW Act, s. 14], which was 50 per cent of monthly wages paid at recruitment, has not been carried into the Code.
Public distribution system (section 62(a)): the Government shall make schemes giving the worker the option of drawing rations in his native State or the destination State.
Construction cess benefits (section 62(b)): portability of benefits from the building and other construction workers’ welfare cess fund in the destination State.
Toll-free helpline (section 63) and study of inter-State migrant workers (section 64), at the Government’s option.
Database and self-registration (section 21(2)): the Central and State Governments shall maintain a database of inter-State migrant workers on a portal, on which a worker may register himself on self-declaration and Aadhaar; migrants who are self-employed in the other State may also register.
Past debts extinguished (section 65): no suit lies to recover a debt owed by a migrant worker to the contractor or principal employer after his employment ends; the debt is deemed extinguished. This guards against debt bondage.

Provisions of the 1979 Act on equal wages (s. 13), residential accommodation and protective clothing (s. 16) are now covered by the Code on Wages and by sections 23 and 24 of the OSH Code, which apply to all workers.

6. The case law

People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, 1982 INSC 67, (1982) 3 SCC 235 (the Asiad case). Migrant workers brought from other States to build the Asian Games projects in Delhi were paid below the minimum wage through jamadars. The Court held that the Union, the Delhi Administration and the Delhi Development Authority, as principal employers, were bound to ensure that contractors complied with the labour laws, including the 1979 Act and CLRA; that payment below the minimum wage is forced labour under Article 23; and that construction work is hazardous employment for children under Article 24.
In re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers, 2021 INSC 315. In the suo motu case arising from the 2020 lockdown, the Court directed the Centre to complete a national portal for registering unorganised and migrant workers, required the States to implement the One Nation One Ration Card scheme and to provide dry rations, and directed the States to register establishments and license contractors under the 1979 Act so that migrants could be identified.

Trap. Do not write that the Code abolishes the contractor’s licence for migrant workers. The separate licence of the 1979 Act has gone, but a contractor supplying fifty or more contract labour, migrants included, still needs a licence under section 47.

How this is examined

“Licensing of contractors under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act” was the 6-mark note in January 2026. Expect under the new syllabus “Discuss the applicability, facilities and benefits for inter-State migrant workers under the OSH Code”. Write the definition (and how it widened), the ten-worker threshold, section 60 duties, then the section 61 to 65 benefits, and end with Asiad and the 2021 directions. A problem on a migrant worker injured on a site in another State is answered from section 60(ii) (report to both States) and section 60(iii) (employees’ compensation and ESI as for any other worker).

Now try the real questions: Labour and Industrial Law II past question papers.