Learning Series by Shekhar Ganagaluru (Issue 2)

5/21/2022

Q1. Which of the existing labour laws the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020, shall repeal?
The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 consolidates the following 13 labour laws:

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

Q2. How the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 has been organised?
The code is organized into 14 chapters with a total of 143 sections and 3 schedules.

Q3. Name the three schedules in the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

*Section 2 (za):
"hazardous process" means any process or activity in relation to an industry or plantation specified in the First Schedule where, unless special care is taken, raw materials used therein or the intermediate or finished products, bye-products, hazardous substances, wastes or effluents thereof or spraying of any pesticides, insecticides or chemicals used therein, as the case may be, would--

cause material impairment to the health of the persons engaged in or connected therewith, or
result in the pollution of the general environment;

**Section 18 (2) (f):
(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the power to declare standards to be followed under sub-section (1), such standards shall relate to --
(f) matters specified in the Second Schedule to this Code.

***Section 12 (1):
Where any worker in an establishment contracts any disease specified in the Third Schedule, the employer of the establishment shall send notice thereof to such authorities, and in such form and within such time, as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government.

Q4. Does the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 apply to Contract Labour employed through contractors in Central/State Government Offices?
Yes.
The code is not applicable for the offices of the Central/State Government. However, the code is applicable for contract labour employed through contractor in the offices of the Central/State Government, where, the Central/State Government is the Principal Employer.

Q5. Who is the Principal Employer as per the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020?
As per the Section 2 (zz) of the Code, where the Contract Labour is engaged, the Principal Employer is–

Q6. Who is the Contractor as per the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020?
As per the Section 2 (n) of the Code, in relation to an establishment, “contractor” means a person, who –
“Undertakes to produce a given result for the establishment through contract labour or supplies contract labour for any work of the establishment as mere manpower.”

Q7. What does the establishment mean by the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020?
As per the Section 2 (v) of the Code, the “establishment” means –

Threshold of workers is not applicable in case of such establishment or class of establishments, in which such hazardous or life-threatening activity is being carried on, as may be notified by the Central Government.
The mine or port or vicinity of port where dock work is carried out, which is not in the above category will be establishment with the workers threshold provided in the definition of factory in clause 2 (w) for the purposes of Chapter II (Registration) of the code. For other chapters the establishments within the meaning of the number of employees employed are ten or more is applicable.

Q8. What is a “factory” according to the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020?
As per the Section 2 (w) of the Code, the “Factory” means any premises including the precincts thereof –

whereon twenty or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on; or
whereon forty or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on without the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on,

but does not include a mobile unit belonging to the armed forces of the Union, railways running shed or a hotel, restaurant or eating place.

Q9. What is an “industrial premises” according to the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020?
As per the Section 2 (ZC) of the Code, an “industrial premises” means –

Any place or premises (not being a private dwelling house), including the precincts thereof, in which or in any part of which any industry, trade, business, occupation or manufacturing is being ordinarily carried on with or without the aid of power and includes a godown attached thereto.

Q10. What does “precinct” mean?
As per the dictionary meaning, precinct means, “the area within the walls or perceived boundaries of a particular building or place.”

In simple terms the precinct means a space enclosed by walls.

The case law of K.V.V.Sharma AIR, 1953, Mad 269, stated precincts as “a space enclosed by walls or fences. A place solely used for some purpose other than the manufacturing process carried on in a factory or a workshop does not constitute a factory.”