OSH Code Thresholds: What Changes as Your Factory Grows from 10 to 500 Workers

Most small manufacturers find out about a labour law threshold the hard way: an inspection, a customer audit, or a new HR manager asking why there is no creche. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (the OSH Code) has been in force since 21 November 2025, and it moved several of those lines. If your headcount is somewhere between 10 and 500, this is the list worth keeping on the wall.

We’ve kept to what the Code itself says. Much of the detail (forms, timelines, ages for health checks) sits in the rules, and for most private factories those are your state’s rules, not the Centre’s. So read this as the map, then check your state’s rules for the street names.

First, are you a factory at all?

The Factories Act, 1948 treated premises as a factory at 10 workers with power, or 20 without. The OSH Code doubles both numbers.

Manufacturing process	Factories Act, 1948	OSH Code, 2020
With the aid of power	10 or more workers	20 or more workers
Without the aid of power	20 or more workers	40 or more workers

Two details trip people up. The count is anyone working on any day of the preceding twelve months, so a busy season with extra hands can tip you over for the whole year. And the Code lets a state keep a different number if its own law set one before the Code began, so check before you assume you’ve dropped out.

Dropping below the factory line doesn’t take you out of the Code. A place where 10 or more workers are employed is an “establishment”, and establishments still have to register and still carry the general duties below.

From 10 workers: register, and the basics

• Registration. An establishment the Code applies to must apply electronically within 60 days of the Code applying to it. An unregistered establishment may not employ anyone, which is a blunt rule and worth taking seriously.
• Appointment letters. Every employee gets a letter of appointment when they join. People already on the rolls when the Code began were due theirs within three months, so if that hasn’t happened, it’s overdue.
• Annual health checks. The employer pays for an annual health examination for employees of the age and class the government prescribes. Your state’s rules decide who that covers.
• Accident notices. A death, or an injury that keeps someone off work for 48 hours or more, has to be reported to the authorities in the way and within the time the rules set.

The 48-hour line is the one small sites miss. A cut hand that keeps an operator at home for two days is a notifiable accident, even if everyone on the shop floor thinks of it as minor.

Above 50 workers: a lunch room and a creche

Once a factory has more than 50 workers ordinarily employed, it needs a lunch room. Any establishment with more than 50 workers needs a creche for children under six, and the Code allows establishments to share a common creche, which is how most small units in an industrial estate will manage it.

At 100 workers: a canteen, and contractors count

A canteen is required where 100 or more workers are ordinarily employed, and the Code says plainly that this includes contract labourers. A unit with 70 people on its own payroll and 35 from a contractor is over the line. This is where a lot of plants that think of themselves as “about 70 people” get caught.

At 250 workers: a welfare officer, and sometimes a safety officer

• A factory with 250 or more workers ordinarily employed must appoint a welfare officer.
• A factory carrying on a hazardous process must appoint safety officers at 250 workers, half the usual number.

If you handle chemicals, solvents or anything listed as a hazardous process, plan for a qualified safety officer well before you reach 250. Good ones take time to hire.

At 500 workers: safety officers, an ambulance room, a safety committee

• Every factory with 500 or more workers must appoint safety officers.
• Factories with more than 500 workers need an ambulance room.
• The Code lets the government require a safety committee for any class of establishment. The central rules, notified on 8 May 2026, set it at 500 workers for the establishments they cover, with equal numbers from management and workers. Your state’s rules may draw the line elsewhere.

The whole ladder on one page

Workers	What the OSH Code adds
10 or more	An establishment: register within 60 days; appointment letters; annual health checks as prescribed; accident notices
20 (with power) or 40 (without)	A factory, with the Code’s factory provisions on top
More than 50	Lunch room (factories); creche (any establishment)
100 or more, contract labour included	Canteen
250 or more	Welfare officer; safety officers if the process is hazardous
500 or more	Safety officers; ambulance room (above 500); a safety committee where the rules require one

What to do this month

1. Count properly. Take the highest headcount on any day in the last twelve months, contractors included, for each site separately.
2. Check which rules apply. Find out whether your state has notified its OSH rules and what they say about health checks, accident notices and safety committees.
3. Confirm the registration. Make sure each site is registered under the Code, and that the details on it are current.
4. Close the paperwork gaps. Appointment letters for everyone, and a record of who is due a health check and when.
5. Write down the 48-hour rule. Make sure supervisors know that two days off work means a notice, and who sends it.
6. Look one step ahead. If you’re at 85 workers and growing, the canteen is next year’s problem. Better to plan it now than build it in a hurry.

Where Rampart fits

A 60-person plant doesn’t need a large EHS department, but it does need to know what happened, who was told and what was done about it. Rampart lets you start with just the pieces you need, such as incident reporting, a register of licences and legal obligations with reminders before they lapse, or training records, and add more as you grow.

See EHS & HSSE for what’s included, or book a demo below.

Sources

• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act No. 37 of 2020), India Code: sections 2(1)(v), 2(1)(w), 3, 6, 10, 22 and 24
• Ministry of Labour and Employment: the four labour codes come into force, November 2025
• Notified OSH (Central) Rules, 2026: what employers need to know, Legal 500

This article summarises the Code as of October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice: check your state’s rules for your own sites.