The Central Government notified the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026 on 8 May 2026 to operate the OSH Code, 2020. The Rules bind establishments for which the Centre is the appropriate Government, such as mines, major ports and Central public sector undertakings, together with their contractors.
For those contractors and the establishments that hire them, a missed wage date now carries a cost that falls on the principal employer. Where a contractor has not paid its contract labour within seven days of the end of a wage period, rule 98(8) puts the principal employer under a duty to pay those workers in full within fifteen days and to recover the money from the contractor afterwards. A contravention of the Rules for which the Code provides no specific penalty also exposes the employer to a penalty of ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh under Section 94 of the Code, with up to ₹2,000 more for each day a contravention continues after conviction.
Those penalties sit behind a scheme built to make compliance simpler rather than heavier. In place of fifteen sets of central rules, among them the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971, the Mines Rules, 1955 and the Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Rules, 1990, an employer now works with one electronic registration, one set of registers and one annual return. A contractor can hold a single licence valid across India, and several approvals are deemed granted when the officer concerned does not act in time.
The consolidation reaches fewer employers than its national extent suggests. The Rules extend to the whole of India, but they govern only establishments for which the Central Government is the appropriate Government under Section 2(1)(d) of the Code. That list covers establishments run by or under the Centre, railways and metro railways, mines, oil fields, major ports, air transport, telecommunication, banking and insurance companies, and Central public sector undertakings and their subsidiaries, and it expressly includes the establishments of contractors working for them. A factory, a plantation or a motor transport undertaking answers to its State’s rules instead, so a contractor falls under the Central Rules while building inside a major port and under a State’s rules at a private factory outside the gate, a split the guide to Labour Codes implementation in 2026 maps across all four Codes.
The Centre reached the final text in two steps after the Code came into force on 21 November 2025. It published the draft Rules as G.S.R. 934(E) on 30 December 2025 and invited objections for forty-five days. After considering them, it notified the final Rules as G.S.R. 345(E) on 8 May 2026, in force from their publication in the Gazette that day, which also opened a six-month window for establishments already registered under older central laws to update their particulars.
Registration under the OSH Central Rules before work starts
Registration under the OSH Central Rules is an electronic application in FORM-I on the Shram Suvidha Portal, and the registering officer issues the certificate in FORM-III within seven days of a complete application, failing which the establishment is deemed registered and the portal generates the certificate itself. Which government’s rules apply is the question to settle before that application is filed, and a single construction project makes both steps concrete.
A Central public sector undertaking engages a contractor to build a warehouse inside a major port. The contractor expects about 300 workers at peak, a number of them from other States and some past the age of forty, and the concrete work will run through night shifts. Because the undertaking is a Central public sector undertaking and the site is a major port, the Centre is the appropriate Government for the project, and Section 2(1)(d) of the Code brings the contractor’s establishment in with it.
Two sets of paperwork therefore have to be in place before anyone arrives on site. The undertaking registers the establishment, or updates an existing registration, and gives notice that work is starting. The contractor, who will employ more than fifty contract labour, also needs a licence under Part I of Chapter XI of the Code before the first worker is engaged.
The application under rule 3(1) carries the particulars of the establishment, documents relating to its registration, and proof of identity and address. Section 3(1) of the Code gives a new establishment sixty days from the date the Code applies to it, and rule 3(3) leaves the late fee for registration more than sixty days after the Rules were notified to a general or special order of the Centre. Once issued, the certificate is non-transferable and must be displayed at conspicuous places in the premises, and the registration number goes on every document and every letter the employer sends to the office concerned.
A construction site also owes the authorities a notice at each end of its working life. Under rule 4, the employer of an establishment relating to contract labour or building work submits FORM-VI to the registering officer and the Inspector-cum-Facilitator within thirty days of commencing operations, and again within thirty days of ceasing them. The cessation notice carries a certificate that all dues to the workers have been paid and that the premises are free of hazardous chemicals. A mine works the other way round, giving thirty days’ notice in FORM-VII before it starts, reopens or closes.
The last step before a worker starts is a letter in the worker’s hand. Rule 6 prohibits employing anyone in any establishment unless an appointment letter has been issued in the prescribed format, which records the type of employment (regular, fixed-term or contractual), the skill category, the wages and allowances, whether provident fund and employees’ state insurance benefits apply, and, for a woman employee, the maternity benefits available under the Code on Social Security, 2020. The format also asks for the establishment’s Labour Identification Number and for the worker’s Aadhaar number, the latter only with consent, and the wider drafting points are set out in the guide to drafting an employment agreement in India.
For the port project, the determination is three filings before day one. The undertaking registers the establishment, it gives the FORM-VI notice within thirty days of work starting, and every worker on the site, including each one the contractor brings, holds an appointment letter before starting work.
Establishments already registered under the old central laws
An establishment already registered under another central labour law updates its existing registration rather than starting again. Rule 3(6) requires its employer to update the registration particulars in FORM-I within six months of the Rules coming into force on 8 May 2026, which puts the deadline in early November 2026. Any later change in those particulars goes onto the portal within thirty days under rule 3(8), and the amended certificate issues within seven days or is generated automatically. An employer that does not apply at all can be directed by the registering officer, by order under rule 3(5), to comply within a time the order specifies.
The same deemed-action approach applies when an establishment shuts. When an establishment other than a mine closes, the employer intimates the actual date of closing in FORM-II within thirty days, together with a certificate that all dues and statutory returns to the workers have been paid. The portal then shares that information with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation. The registering officer cancels the registration in FORM-IV within sixty days of receiving a complete FORM-II, and if the officer does not act in that time, the cancellation is generated automatically.
Safety, health and welfare duties under the OSH Central Rules once the site runs
Once a site is running, the OSH Central Rules tie most safety, health and welfare duties to the number of workers ordinarily employed, so each duty begins at a different headcount. A crèche is required above fifty workers and a canteen from one hundred, counting contract labour for the canteen. A building site needs a safety officer from 250 workers, a safety committee is required from 500, and an ambulance room is required above 500.
The port project reaches about 300 workers at peak, which takes it past the crèche, canteen and safety-officer thresholds and leaves it short of the safety committee and the ambulance room. Around sixty of those workers are past forty, and that fact brings in a separate duty that does not depend on headcount at all.
Health examinations and safety officers under the Central Rules
The free annual medical examination under rule 5 applies to dock work and building or other construction work, and it covers every employee who has completed forty years of age. A qualified medical practitioner conducts the examination and issues a certificate in FORM-VIII to both the employer and the employee, and the employer may use the facility of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation instead of arranging one privately. Mines follow a separate regime of initial and periodical examinations under rule 109. Nothing in rule 5 extends the examination to every worker over forty in every kind of establishment.
Safety officers depend on the sector as well as the count. Under rule 18, a building or other construction site with 250 or more workers employs one safety officer up to 500 workers, two up to 1,000, three up to 2,000 and four up to 5,000, adding one for every further 2,000. Dock work starts at 500 workers and scales more slowly, with one more officer for every 5,000 workers above 10,000.
A safety committee becomes mandatory at 500 workers under rule 14, although the Centre may set different thresholds for different classes of establishment by order. The committee runs for three years, meets at least once a quarter (once a month in a mine), and has equal numbers of employer and worker members up to a total of twenty, with a senior official in the chair and the safety officer as secretary. The employer must act on its recommendations within fifteen days of receiving them, and separately, under rule 10, must act at once on any worker’s report of imminent danger and send the Inspector-cum-Facilitator a report of the action taken.
For the port project at 300 workers, the determination is one safety officer and a free annual examination for every worker past forty. No safety committee is needed until the headcount reaches 500.
Canteens, crèches and first aid under the Central Rules
The canteen rule counts contract labour alongside the employer’s own workers. Rule 53 requires a canteen in or next to the premises of a factory, mine, building site, beedi and cigar premises, motor transport undertaking, dock or plantation where one hundred or more workers including contract labourers are ordinarily employed, and it permits a common canteen shared with neighbouring establishments. The canteen must stand at a distance from latrines, urinals and process areas, and it needs a dining hall, kitchen, store room, pantry and separate washing places.
A crèche is required under rule 58 where more than fifty workers are ordinarily employed, for employees’ children under the age of six. It is free, located within the workplace where possible or at a nearby accessible place, supplemented by a mobile crèche where required, and kept away from fumes, dust and noisy processes. Police verification of the person in charge, the support staff and the guard is mandatory, and a child may be handed over only to a person whose details the caretaker holds or who carries the parents’ authorisation.
First aid applies whatever the size of the site. Under rule 54, first-aid boxes are kept in adequate numbers, each in the charge of a certified first-aider in every shift, with a notice naming that person and the nearest hospitals. Rule 55 adds an ambulance room or dispensary above 500 workers, and rule 59 requires mock drills every quarter, or once a year on a plantation.
Where contract labour works on the principal employer’s premises, rule 86(1)(iii) places the toilets, drinking water, first-aid box, canteen and crèche on the principal employer rather than the contractor. For the port project, the undertaking provides the canteen and the crèche for the contractor’s 300 workers, because the site is the undertaking’s premises.
Working hours and overtime under the OSH Central Rules on every shift
Under the OSH Central Rules a worker works no more than forty-eight hours in a week, and time beyond that, or beyond eight hours in a day for a daily wager, is overtime paid at twice the ordinary rate of wages. The daily figure comes from the Code itself, since Section 25(1)(a) caps work at eight hours in a day, while rule 64 supplies the weekly figure of forty-eight.
The port project’s concrete pour has to run without a break, so the contractor plans ten-hour shifts, six days a week, for the length of the pour. That schedule puts each worker at sixty hours a week, twelve over the weekly limit. Building work is one of the three sectors in which rule 69(4) lets the forty-eight hours be exceeded, and continuous work for technical reasons is one of the listed circumstances.
The 48-hour week and the overtime cap in the Central Rules
The forty-eight-hour limit in rule 64 applies in every establishment the Rules cover, and Section 26 of the Code adds that no worker works more than six days in any one week. What the Central Rules leave out is a spread-over, meaning the total span from the start of a working day to its end, rest intervals included. Section 25(1)(b) of the Code leaves that figure to notification by the appropriate Government, and the Central Rules contain none, so a daily span quoted in general coverage of the Labour Codes is not a figure these Rules supply.
Overtime is paid under rule 69(1) at twice the rate of wages, at the end of each wage period, where a daily wager works more than eight hours in a day or any other worker works more than forty-eight hours in a week. Section 27 of the Code adds two conditions: the overtime is calculated on a daily or a weekly basis, whichever is more favourable to the worker, and the employer may require it only with the worker’s consent. Rule 69(2) fixes the rounding, under which a fraction of fifteen to thirty minutes counts as thirty minutes and anything over thirty counts as a full hour. For a worker paid by the month, rule 69(3) takes one twenty-sixth of the monthly wage as the daily rate.
In dock work, mines and building or other construction work, rule 69(4) allows the forty-eight hours to be exceeded in twelve listed circumstances. They include urgent repairs, work that must be carried on continuously for technical reasons, the loading or unloading of railway wagons, lorries, trucks or ships, an exceptional press of work, and work the Centre has notified as being of national importance. A proviso then caps overtime at 144 hours in any quarter of a year, and a second proviso repeats that the overtime is paid under Section 27 at the end of each wage period.
At twelve extra hours a week, a worker on the port project reaches the 144-hour quarterly cap in twelve weeks, so a pour that would run beyond twelve weeks inside one quarter can continue only with more workers on shorter hours. Under rule 71 the employer also displays a notice of the periods of work in FORM-XII on a notice board or electronic board at the site and sends a copy to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator. The determination for the file is written consent from each worker to the overtime, double wages for every hour past forty-eight, and a roster that keeps each worker under 144 overtime hours in the quarter.
Night work for women and weekly holidays under the Rules
Women may be employed in every establishment and in every kind of work under Section 43 of the Code, and they may work before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m. with their consent, on conditions the appropriate Government prescribes. For establishments under the Centre, rule 83 sets those conditions. The consent must be in writing, the employer must provide transport to pick up and drop the employee at her residence, and no woman may be employed in breach of the maternity benefit provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020.
Under the same rule, the workplace and the passages to toilets, washrooms and drinking water must be well lit, those facilities must be near where the women work, and closed-circuit television must cover the way to them. The establishment’s emergency telephone numbers must be displayed at the workplace and inside the vehicles. In a below-ground mine at least three women must be on duty at any place, and every establishment must comply with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, including the internal process for filing a POSH complaint at the workplace.
Weekly holidays run alongside the shift roster on notice rules of their own. Under rule 67 the employer posts the weekly holiday at conspicuous places, electronic notice boards included, and where relays of workers take different days, the notice shows each relay’s day. Under rule 68, compensatory holidays for lost weekly holidays are spaced so that no more than two fall in one week, and they are notified by the end of the month in which the holidays were lost.
For the port project’s night pour, the determination is written consent from each woman on the night shift and transport to and from her residence. The routes to the facilities must be lit and covered by cameras, and the roster must still give every worker a weekly holiday.
Contract labour licences under the OSH Central Rules once a contractor comes in
A contractor who employs fifty or more contract labour needs a licence under the OSH Central Rules, applied for electronically in FORM-XXI on the Shram Suvidha Portal and secured by a bank guarantee of ₹1,000 for each worker the licence covers. Section 45 of the Code applies the contract labour provisions to every establishment that employed fifty or more contract labour on any day of the preceding twelve months and to every manpower supply contractor of the same size, and the fee table in rule 90(4) confirms that no licence is needed up to forty-nine.
The port contractor has signed its work order and plans to bring 300 workers, which places it in the fee band for 101 to 300 contract labour. Its licence fee is ₹2,000 and its bank guarantee is ₹3 lakh, being 300 workers at ₹1,000 each. Under rule 94 it also has fifteen days from receiving the work order to report the order on the portal, with the principal employer’s name, the site address, the start date, the number of workers and the duration.
Licence, security deposit and wage dates under the Central Rules
A contractor is eligible for a licence under rule 85 unless it is an undischarged insolvent or has been convicted in the last two years of an offence punishable with more than three months’ imprisonment. A contractor working within one State applies in FORM-XXI under rule 87, while one working in more than one State, or across the whole of India, may apply for a single licence under rule 88. The forty-five-day clock belongs to that single licence, for which the licensing authority consults each State concerned and treats the consultation as complete if a State does not answer within thirty days. The authority then approves or refuses the application within forty-five days, failing which the licence is deemed granted and generated on the portal, valid for five years.
The licence in FORM-XXII is non-transferable and caps the number of contract labour the contractor may employ on any day. Its security scales with the workforce at ₹1,000 a worker, with fixed amounts of ₹10 crore from one lakh workers, ₹15 crore from one and a half lakh and ₹20 crore from two lakh. Renewal is applied for between ninety and thirty days before expiry, with an extra twenty-five per cent fee for a late application, and the authority must renew within seven days or the renewal is deemed granted.
Contract labour doing the same or similar work as the principal employer’s own workers gets the same holidays, hours of work and other conditions of service under rule 93(2). A dispute about whether the work is similar goes to the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), whose decision is final. Under rule 98, wage periods may not exceed a month, and wages are paid before the seventh day after the period ends, by bank transfer or electronically unless that is not practicable. The contractor also files a half-yearly return in FORM-XVIII within thirty days of the close of each half year.
If the contractor has not paid within seven days of the end of the wage period, the principal employer must pay the wages in full, or the unpaid balance, within fifteen days under rule 98(8). It then recovers the sum from amounts due to the contractor or from the security deposit. The Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) can separately order payment out of the contractor’s own security deposit after an inquiry under rule 99, and the contractor must then restore the deposit within fifteen days or face suspension of the licence. For the port undertaking, the determination is to track the contractor’s wage dates as closely as its own, because a date the contractor misses becomes a payment the undertaking owes within fifteen days.
Central Rules on journey allowance for inter-State migrant workers
An inter-State migrant worker who has worked at least 180 days in the establishment in the preceding twelve months is entitled under rule 102 to a lump-sum journey allowance covering the to-and-fro fare between the place of employment and the worker’s residence in the home State. The fare is calculated at no less than second class sleeper by train, or by bus or another mode of passenger transport, and the allowance is paid once in twelve months.
A change of employer part-way through the year does not reset the count. Where the worker has not received the allowance from the previous employer, the present employer pays it on the worker’s own certificate once the worker has completed 180 days in the preceding twelve months across both employers. Rule 103 provides for a toll-free helpline for inter-State migrant workers through the Director General of Labour Welfare, and rule 13 requires the employer to furnish statistics on inter-State migrant workers and their safety and health on a portal the Centre designates.
For the port project, the contractor’s workers from other States who stay through 180 days qualify for the allowance within the year. A worker who joined from another site brings the earlier days along, supported by a certificate, so the roster should record each migrant worker’s start date and previous employment from the first day on site.
Accident notices, returns and compounding under the OSH Central Rules
A fatal accident is reported forthwith in FORM-XI to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator and, electronically and by telephone, to the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator, the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Officer, the officer in charge of the local police station and the victim’s family. An injury that keeps a worker off work for forty-eight hours or more is reported in FORM-XI within twelve hours after those forty-eight hours end, and a dangerous occurrence is reported within twelve hours whether or not anyone is hurt. When a section of scaffolding at the port collapses during a night pour, the collapse is itself a dangerous occurrence listed in rule 7(4), so the twelve-hour clock starts even if every worker walks away unhurt.
If an injured person dies after the first notice has gone, the employer sends a fresh notice forthwith by telephone and electronically to the same authorities and confirms it in writing within twelve hours of the death. Where the forty-eight hours of disability accumulate in more than one spell, the report is due within twenty-four hours of the total reaching forty-eight. Every accident is entered in the register in FORM-XIX under rule 75, and the notice board required by rule 73 shows the establishment’s accidents and dangerous occurrences for the last five years. Civil liability for the injury itself is a separate question, governed by the principles on workplace injuries under Indian tort law.
Alongside the accident register, rule 72 requires an employee register in FORM XIII, an attendance register-cum-muster roll in FORM XIV and a register of wages, overtime and deductions in FORM XV, kept electronically or on paper for five years, with electronic wage slips in FORM XVI on or before payday. An employer already keeping registers under the rules made under the Code on Wages, 2019 is treated as keeping them under these Rules. The annual return in FORM-XVII reaches the Inspector-cum-Facilitator electronically by the last day of February after each calendar year, and after an inspection the Inspector-cum-Facilitator issues an improvement notice in FORM-XXV listing the non-compliances found.
Compounding an offence under the OSH Central Rules
A contravention of the Code or the Rules for which the Code provides no other penalty carries a penalty of ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh under Section 94, and Section 114(1) allows that penalty to be compounded by an officer the Centre notifies, before or after an inquiry and even after a prosecution has begun. The compounding amount is fifty per cent of the maximum penalty where a penalty is involved and seventy-five per cent of the maximum fine where the matter is an offence.
The procedure for compounding is in rule 182, under which the person accused applies in FORM-XXVI and the notified officer answers with a compounding notice in FORM-XXVII. Once the amount is paid, which must happen within fifteen days of the notice, the officer issues a composition certificate within ten days. If the amount is not paid in time, prosecution is instituted after one month from the last date, and where a prosecution is already pending, the officer sends a copy of the compounding order to the court concerned. For the port undertaking, a contravention that attracts the general penalty under Section 94 can therefore be settled for ₹1.5 lakh, half the ₹3 lakh maximum, within fifteen days of a compounding notice rather than in court.
Frequently asked questions
Do the OSH Central Rules apply to a private factory?
The OSH Central Rules do not govern a private factory. Under Section 2(1)(d) of the OSH Code, the State Government is the appropriate Government for a factory, a plantation, a motor transport undertaking, a newspaper establishment and a beedi and cigar establishment, so those follow the rules made by the State where they are situated. The Central Rules apply where the Centre is the appropriate Government, which includes mines, major ports, railways, Central public sector undertakings and the establishments of contractors working for them.
Does an establishment registered under the old labour laws have to register again?
An establishment already registered under another central labour law updates its registration instead of filing afresh. Rule 3(6) requires the employer to update the registration particulars in FORM-I on the portal within six months of the Rules coming into force on 8 May 2026. Any later change in the particulars must be updated within thirty days.
How much overtime can a worker be asked to do under the OSH Central Rules?
Overtime under the OSH Central Rules is paid at twice the rate of wages for work beyond eight hours a day for a daily wager, or beyond forty-eight hours a week for any other worker. In dock work, mines and building or other construction work, rule 69(4) caps overtime at 144 hours in any quarter. Section 27 of the Code also makes overtime subject to the worker’s consent.
When does a contractor need a licence under the OSH Code?
A contractor needs a licence once it employs fifty or more contract labour, and no licence is required up to forty-nine. The application is made in FORM-XXI on the Shram Suvidha Portal, with a bank guarantee of ₹1,000 for each contract labour to be employed. A contractor working in more than one State can apply for a single licence under rule 88, which is deemed granted if the authority does not decide within forty-five days and is valid for five years.
Within how many hours must a workplace accident be reported under the Central Rules?
A fatal accident must be reported forthwith, in FORM-XI and by telephone, to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator and the other authorities named in rule 7(1), including the local police and the victim’s family. An injury that keeps a worker away for forty-eight hours or more must be reported within twelve hours after those forty-eight hours end. A dangerous occurrence, such as the collapse of a crane or scaffolding, must be reported within twelve hours even if no one is injured.
References
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 345(E), Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3(i), No. 311, 8 May 2026, rules cited: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 53, 54, 55, 58, 59, 64, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 83, 85 to 91, 93, 94, 98, 99, 102, 103, 109 and 182 (e-Gazette PDF)
Draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, G.S.R. 934(E), 30 December 2025
The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (37 of 2020), sections cited: 2(1)(d), 2(1)(v), 3, 25, 26, 27, 43, 45, 94 and 114 (e-Gazette PDF)
Press Information Bureau, factsheet on the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (PIB)
Shram Suvidha Portal, Ministry of Labour and Employment (shramsuvidha.gov.in)
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026 apply only where the Central Government is the appropriate Government, several of their thresholds and fees can be varied by general or special order, and establishments under a State Government follow that State’s rules. Readers should check the current notifications and consult a qualified advocate on the facts of a specific establishment.