Labour ministry notifies draft rules under Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code

The labour ministry has notified draft rules pertaining to setting up of a technical committee under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (OSH&WC Code), 2020. The committee is expected to help the government or the national board to be set up under the Code in discharging safety and other related measures across industrial establishments.

The ministry has invited suggestions on the draft rules in the next 45 days following which the above Rules will be finalised. This would enable the government to put in place the required technical committee for smooth implementation of the OSH&WC Code.

The technical committees shall be multi-membered and consist of members from government, public, autonomous or private institutions/industries and the chairman of the technical committee shall be the ex-officio member or nominated by the central government, it said in the draft Rules.


As per the Rules, the technical committees shall frame, formulate and review standards, rules and regulations on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions under the Code, 2020.

“The technical committee shall meet regularly on a need basis and not less than once in a six month,” it added.

The labour ministry has consolidated 29 labour laws into four Codes. These are the Wage Code, the Social Security Code and the Industrial Relations Code along with the OSH&WC Code.

The Codes have been passed by the Parliament and the government has finalised the Rules under the four Codes.

However, labour being in the concurrent list, the Centre is waiting for some states to be ready with Rules in their domain across four codes as this would ensure smooth implementation of the Codes and would help avoid any legal void.

The OSH &WC Code, 2020 had provided that the central government shall constitute one or more technical committees for the purpose of assisting the central government or national board in discharge of its function specified in subsection (1) of section 16 of the Code.