Duties, safety, health and welfare under the OSH Code

1. Duties of the employer (section 6)

Section 6(1) [Factories Act, s. 7A] requires every employer to:

• keep the workplace free from hazards that cause or are likely to cause injury or occupational disease;
• comply with the safety and health standards declared under section 18 and the rules;
• provide a free annual health examination for the prescribed classes of employees;
• provide and maintain, so far as reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to health;
• ensure disposal of hazardous and toxic waste, including e-waste;
• issue a letter of appointment to every employee (a new duty; existing employees were to receive one within three months of commencement);
• levy no charge on any employee for safety and health measures, including medical examinations to detect occupational disease; and
• in a factory, mine, dock, building site or plantation, be responsible for the safety and health of employees and of other persons on the premises, with or without his knowledge.

Section 6(2) adds, for those five kinds of workplace, safe plant and systems of work; safe use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances; information, instruction, training and supervision; safe means of access and exit; and a safe working environment.

2. Duties of others

• Owner, agent and manager of a mine (section 7) are jointly and severally responsible for compliance, and are deemed guilty of a contravention unless they prove due diligence.
• Designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers (section 8) [Factories Act, s. 7B] must ensure that articles and substances are safe when properly used, test them and supply information. An importer must ensure the article meets Indian standards, or the higher foreign standard.
• Architects, project engineers and designers of construction projects (section 9) must consider the safety of building workers at the planning stage.
• Employees (section 13) [Factories Act, s. 111] must take reasonable care for their own and others’ safety, comply with standards, co-operate with the employer, report unsafe situations, and not wilfully misuse safety appliances or endanger others.
• Everyone (section 15): no person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided for health, safety or welfare.

Employees also have rights (section 14) [Factories Act, s. 111A]: to obtain information about health and safety, to complain to the employer or Safety Committee and then to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, and, on reasonable apprehension of imminent danger, to report it to the employer and simultaneously to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, whose decision on whether the danger exists is final. Notice must be given of accidents causing death or disabling a person for 48 hours or more (section 10), of dangerous occurrences (section 11) and of occupational diseases in the Third Schedule (section 12).

3. Occupational safety and health: Chapter IV

• National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board (section 16), chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Labour, with heads of the technical agencies, representatives of four States, five employers’ and five employees’ representatives and experts. It advises on standards, rules and policy. The Code has no separate Central Advisory Contract Labour Board; where a contract labour question needs advice, section 45(2) sends it to the National Board or a State Advisory Board.
• State Advisory Boards (section 17), which may set up site appraisal committees.
• Standards (section 18): the Central Government declares standards for factories, mines, docks, beedi and cigar works, construction and other establishments, covering physical, chemical and biological hazards, exposure limits, medical examination and safety audits. A State may amend them for its establishments with Central approval.
• Safety Committees and safety officers (section 22) [Factories Act, ss. 40B, 41G]: safety officers are compulsory in factories with 500 or more workers (250 if a hazardous process), construction work with 250 or more, and mines with 100 or more. Under the 1948 Act the figure was 1,000.

4. Health and working conditions; welfare

Section 23 makes the employer responsible for the health, safety and working conditions the Central Government prescribes: cleanliness, ventilation and temperature, freedom from dust and fumes, humidification, drinking water, prevention of overcrowding, lighting, separate latrines and urinals for male, female and transgender employees, and treatment of wastes [Factories Act, ss. 11–20].

Section 24 deals with welfare [Factories Act, ss. 42–50]. The thresholds have changed and are often asked.

• Washing facilities, bathing places and locker rooms, places to keep and dry clothing, seating for those who work standing, first-aid boxes: every establishment.
• Canteen: 100 or more workers, counting contract labour (old: more than 250).
• Shelters, rest rooms and lunch room: factories and mines with more than 50 workers (old: more than 150).
• Ambulance room: factory, mine or construction work with more than 500 workers.
• Welfare officer: factory, mine or plantation with 250 or more workers (old: 500).
• Crèche (section 24(3)): establishments with more than 50 workers, for children under six; common crèches may be shared (old: more than 30 women workers). Note that the crèche is now tied to the total number of workers, not the number of women.
• Free temporary accommodation for building workers at or near the site.

5. Factories and hazardous processes

Part VII of Chapter XI carries forward Chapter IVA of the Factories Act, inserted in 1987 after the Bhopal gas disaster.

• Approval and licensing (section 79) [s. 6]: rules on plans, site permission and licences; site permission is deemed granted if no order is made within 30 days.
• Owner of premises let to several occupiers (section 80) is jointly responsible for common facilities.
• Dangerous operations (section 82) [s. 87]: rules may restrict employment of pregnant women and require medical examination at the occupier’s cost.
• Site appraisal committees (section 83) [s. 41A] report within 30 days on the location or expansion of a hazardous-process factory.
• Compulsory disclosure (section 84) [s. 41B]: the occupier must disclose hazards to workers, the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, the local authority and the public nearby, lay down a safety policy, draw up an on-site emergency plan, and give 30 days’ notice before starting a hazardous process.
• Specific responsibilities (section 85) [s. 41C]: health records, qualified supervisors, medical examination before, during (every twelve months) and after the job.
• Inquiry by the National Board into an extraordinary situation (section 86) [s. 41D]; emergency standards (section 87) [s. 41E]; exposure limits (section 88) [s. 41F]; and the workers’ right to warn of imminent danger (section 89) [s. 41H].

Breach of the employer’s section 6 duties in relation to hazardous processes, or of section 80, is punishable under section 102 with imprisonment up to two years and fine up to five lakh rupees, rising to three years or twenty lakh rupees if it continues for a year after conviction [Factories Act, s. 96A].

6. The case law

• M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (Oleum gas leak), 1986 INSC 281, (1987) 1 SCC 395. After a leak of oleum gas from Shriram’s plant in Delhi, a Constitution Bench held that an enterprise engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous activity is absolutely liable for harm caused by it, without the exceptions to Rylands v. Fletcher, and that compensation must be related to the magnitude and capacity of the enterprise. This is the policy behind sections 84 to 89.
• Consumer Education and Research Centre v. Union of India, 1995 INSC 76, (1995) 3 SCC 42. Workers in the asbestos industry suffered asbestosis. The Court held that the right to health and medical care of a worker is part of Article 21 read with Articles 39(e), 41 and 43, and directed the industry to keep health records of every worker for forty years from the start of employment or fifteen years after it ends, whichever is later, and to compensate affected workers.
• J.K. Industries Ltd. v. Chief Inspector of Factories and Boilers, 1996 INSC 1114, (1996) 6 SCC 665. A company must name a director as occupier, so that responsibility for safety sits at board level.

How this is examined

Past papers on the old syllabus asked for “health measures of contract labour” (August 2024) and provisions on child and women workers; under the new syllabus expect “Discuss the duties of employers and employees under the OSH Code” or “Explain the welfare provisions under the OSH Code” as the 10-mark essay, and short notes on the National Board, safety committees, or hazardous processes. For hazardous processes, write the section 84–89 scheme and end with the Oleum case; for welfare, list the facilities with their new thresholds beside the old ones.