Background
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act No. 37 of 2020) consolidates 13 central labour laws relating to occupational safety, health and working conditions into one statute. It came into force on 21 November 2025 alongside the other three Labour Codes. The Central Rules were notified on 8 May 2026, followed by the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Andhra Pradesh) Rules, 2026, notified vide G.O.Rt. No. 146 dated 6 August 2026, replacing rules under the earlier enactments and extending across Andhra Pradesh.
This blog covers Rules 24-41 of the Andhra Pradesh Rules, addressing working hours, weekly and compensatory holidays, overtime, annual leave with wages, statutory registers and returns, notices, alternative employment following prohibitory orders, and conditions for employing women at night and in hazardous operations. It also covers related factory and construction duties under Rules 24, 25, 30, 31 and 32 of the Central Rules, prescribed forms, online filing, multilingual notices, and penalties under Sections 94-104 of the Code.
Applicability
These provisions apply to every establishment covered by the Andhra Pradesh Rules, whose employers must observe the working-hours, holiday, overtime and leave limits, display the prescribed notices and maintain the prescribed registers and annual return; to occupiers of factories, who must additionally control humidity, dust, fumes and other impurities, observe the restriction on double employment (which also extends to mines) and provide alternative employment with notice to the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator when an order under Section 38 affects workers; to employers of building or other construction works, who must ensure cleanliness, ventilation, temperature and humidity control and protection against dust, gases and fumes at sites; to contractors and establishments engaging fifty or more contract labourers in the preceding twelve months on non-intermittent work, who must file half-yearly returns; and to establishments employing women at night or in hazardous or dangerous processes, which must secure the prescribed safeguards for them.
Key Compliances under the Rules in accordance with the Code
Following section sets out the key compliance obligations under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Andhra Pradesh) Rules, 2026, along with the applicable penalty framework.
Workers completing 180 days in a calendar year are entitled to paid leave at one day per 20 days worked for adults and one day per 15 days for adolescents and below-ground mine workers. Workers joining after 1 January qualify after working one-fourth of the remaining days. Holidays are excluded from leave taken. Leave wages are payable within two working days on discharge or dismissal, two months on retirement, at relieving on resignation, and within one week of intimation of death to the nominee. Unused leave may be carried forward up to 30 days, with refused leave carried forward without limit; excess leave is encashable. Leave records must be maintained, abstracts provided on request, and medical certificates may be required for illness-related leave.
Where humidity is artificially increased, the factory employer shall assess and control heat-stress risks, provide work-rest cycles in a cooler resting space, drinking water with electrolytes, supervision and trained first-aid, and train exposed employees to recognise heat stress. Relative humidity must be tested and recorded, regulated where harmful using drinking-quality or purified water, and instruments for measuring humidity and temperature must be provided and maintained.
Compensatory holidays shall not exceed two per week, except in continuous-process work. A notice of compensatory holidays for the following month must be displayed by the end of the month in which holidays are lost, with any change made at least three days in advance. Holidays must be granted before discharge or dismissal, excluded from the notice period, and recorded in the attendance register.
Employers must display at the entrance the establishment’s name, address, registration and licence details, licence limits, working hours, wage period and payment date, five-year accident records, and Inspector-cum-Facilitator contact details. Safety precautions, operating procedures and PPE signage must be displayed at workplaces. Notices must be legible and maintained in Telugu, English and the majority workers’ language.
The first day of the week is the weekly day of rest, and no adult worker may work on it unless the substitution conditions are met. A notice of the weekly holiday must be posted conspicuously outside the office of every establishment, showing the holiday for each relay, set or individual where it differs, in Telugu or English.
A worker may work on the weekly rest day only if a whole-day holiday is given on one of the three days immediately before or after it, and the employer has, before that day or the substituted day (whichever is earlier), sent a notice to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator and displayed a notice in the establishment. No substitution may result in a worker working more than ten consecutive days without a whole-day holiday.
The employer shall protect employees from chemical, physical and biological hazards (by substitution, technical controls or free PPE), guard against toxic, oxygen-deficient or flammable atmospheres, and take preventive measures against heat stress, cold and wet conditions. Adequate ventilation must be provided at all workplaces, high-temperature processes isolated or insulated, work-rest cycles provided, and air quantity, temperature and humidity regularly measured and recorded. Tunnelling sites must have adequate ventilation, instruments for measuring oxygen, flammable gases, temperature, dust and toxic gases, and uncontaminated compressor air intakes.
The employer shall keep the site and its surroundings clean and hygienic, provide storage for materials and equipment, remove scrap and debris at appropriate intervals, keep access and passageways unobstructed, treat slippery surfaces, maintain drainage on wet floors with free protective gear, and arrange daily collection and disposal of waste under supervision.
Exhaust systems for flammable fumes or vapours must not be connected to other ventilation systems or combustion flues; harmful exhaust must be neutralised, sterilised or deodorised before discharge; and no employee may enter any workplace or confined space until noxious gas, fume, vapour or dust levels are brought within permissible limits.
Women may be employed before 6 a.m. or after 7 p.m. only with their written consent and subject to the employer: complying with maternity benefit provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020; providing pick-up and drop transport; keeping the workplace and access routes well lit; providing nearby toilets, washrooms and drinking water with CCTV on access routes; providing BIS-compliant sanitary napkins daily with safe disposal; displaying emergency contact numbers at the workplace and in vehicles; complying with the POSH Act, 2013; and following any additional measures notified by the State Government.
Women working near moving machinery must wear a head cap, apron and suitable overcoat; separate seating must be provided for women required to work standing; as far as practicable, women must not be engaged in poor-ergonomic work; and they must not be exposed to materials affecting menstrual, reproductive or pregnancy health. The State and Central Governments may notify further standards for women in hazardous processes.
Work beyond eight hours a day (daily wagers) or forty-eight hours a week (others) is overtime, payable at twice the ordinary rate at the end of the wage period, and only with the worker’s consent. Overtime between 15 & 30 minutes counts as 30 minutes and over 30 minutes as one hour; the daily wage of a monthly-paid worker is 1/26th of monthly wages. Overtime is capped at 8 hours a day, 24 a week, 48 a month and 144 a quarter, and must be recorded in overtime slips.
Every employer shall maintain the register of workers, wages, overtime, fines and deductions in Form IX, with manual entries in indelible ink, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
A notice of periods of work in Form VII must be displayed in Telugu, English and the majority workers’ language, with a copy sent to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator. Any change must be intimated to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator in advance, and no change may be made within one week of the last change without prior sanction.
Every employer or contractor shall record attendance daily at the start of work in Form VIII(A), including weekly rest, substituted or compensatory holidays, leave and overtime, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
Every employer or contractor shall maintain a register of all persons employed in Form VIII, electronically or otherwise, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
Every employer shall maintain a record of leave with wages in Form X, electronically or otherwise, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
Every employer shall maintain a register of accidents and dangerous occurrences in Form XI, electronically or manually, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
Every employer shall file an annual return in Form XII on the State online portal to the jurisdictional Inspector-cum-Facilitator by 1 February following the calendar year, with a copy to the Director General, Labour Bureau.
Every contractor engaging fifty or more contract labourers in the preceding twelve months shall file a half-yearly return in Form XII(A) on the State online portal within thirty days of the end of each half-year.
Every employer shall maintain a register of adolescent workers in Form XXII, electronically or otherwise, and preserve it for five calendar years from the last entry.
Overtime must be entered in overtime slips in duplicate, showing the establishment, worker, date and normal hours, overtime duration, work done and the manager’s signature, with a signed copy given to the worker immediately after the overtime. The employer must keep a record of all overtime slips issued.
After providing alternative employment to workers affected by an order under Section 38, the factory occupier shall notify the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator within 24 hours.
The employer shall minimise emissions of gas, fume, vapour and dust and keep employee exposure within harmful limits, and shall not allow any employee to enter a workplace or confined space until such levels are brought within permissible limits.
Where workers are affected by an Inspector-cum-Facilitator’s order under Section 38, the factory occupier shall provide safe alternative employment, preferably matching their skills, without any reduction in wages. Workers cannot be compelled to accept an unsuitable job, and in such cases full wages must be paid even without alternative employment.
No worker may be employed in a factory or mine if he or she has worked in another similar establishment in the preceding twelve hours, except for part-time or occasional work, where the occupier is unaware of the other full-time employment, or in establishments exempted under the Schedule to Rule 28.
No worker may work more than forty-eight hours a week; the spread-over, including rest intervals, must not exceed twelve hours a day; and no worker may work more than six hours without a rest interval of at least half an hour.
Penalty & Consequences
Section 94 of the OSH Code, 2020 — General penalty for contravention
Save as otherwise expressly provided in the Code, where there is any contravention, in or in respect of any establishment, of the provisions of the Code or of the regulations, rules, bye-laws or standards made thereunder, or of any order in writing given under the Code or such regulations, rules, bye-laws or standards, the employer or the principal employer of the establishment, as the case may be, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than two lakh rupees which may extend to three lakh rupees, and, if the contravention is continued after conviction, to a further penalty which may extend to two thousand rupees for each day during which the contravention continues.
Section 96 of the OSH Code, 2020 — Failure to maintain registers, file returns or produce documents
Any person who is required under the Code or the rules, regulations, bye-laws or orders made thereunder (i) to maintain any register or other document or to file returns, and omits or fails to maintain such register or document or to file such returns, or (ii) to produce any register, plan, record, report or other document, and omits or fails to produce it, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than fifty thousand rupees which may extend to one lakh rupees. Where a person convicted of such an offence is again convicted of an offence under the same provision, he or she shall be liable to a penalty of not less than fifty thousand rupees which may extend to two lakh rupees.
Section 97 of the OSH Code, 2020 — Contravention of provisions regulating the employment of workers
Any person who, save as permitted by or under the Code, contravenes any provision of the Code or of any rule, regulation or bye-law, or any order made under the Code, prohibiting, restricting or regulating the employment of workers, including women, audio-visual workers, contract labour and, in the case of mines, employees below eighteen years of age, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than fifty thousand rupees which may extend to one lakh rupees. Where a person convicted of such an offence is again convicted of an offence under the same provision, he or she shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees, or with both.
Section 99 of the OSH Code, 2020 — Failure to make or furnish plans, returns, notices and records
Any person who, without reasonable excuse (the burden of proving which shall lie upon him or her), omits to make or furnish, in the prescribed form or manner or at or within the prescribed time, any plan, section, return, notice, register, record or report required by or under any provision of the Code to be made or furnished, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than one lakh rupees which may extend to two lakh rupees.
Section 104 of the OSH Code, 2020 — Continuing to work in contravention of an order under Section 38
Whoever continues to work in contravention of any general or special order issued under Section 38 of the Code shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to five lakh rupees; provided that the court shall not impose a fine of less than two lakh rupees under this section without recording in the judgment the reasons for doing so.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this Article is intended solely for personal non-commercial use of the user who accepts full responsibility of its use. The information in the article is general in nature and should not be considered to be legal, tax, accounting, consulting or any other professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied regarding the accuracy, adequacy, reliability or completeness of any information on our page/article.
