Key Highlights:
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The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSHWC) establishes a unified national safety framework, covering all petroleum units—from refineries to fuel depots.
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Worker safety is strengthened through mandatory medical surveillance, competency-based training and certification, modern safety standards, and enforceable emergency preparedness.
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The Social Security Code, 2020 expands Employees’ State Insurance coverage and introduces digital, streamlined compliance processes, improving welfare delivery and governance in the petroleum sector.
Historic Integration of Labour Laws
The Government of India has implemented four major labour codes—OSHWC, the Social Security Code, 2020, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, and the Wage Code, 2019—effectively consolidating India’s labour laws into a coherent framework. These reforms provide a structured approach to workplace safety, health, and social security. In this context, the petroleum industry—a high-risk sector—is a key beneficiary, where these integrated regulations are crucial for operational and workforce safety.
With the new labour codes, the petroleum sector moves away from fragmented, inspection-heavy compliance systems to a modern, technology-driven framework that simplifies adherence. These regulations are particularly designed for hazardous and high-risk industries like oil and gas, ensuring safety at every stage from production to distribution.
Petroleum Industry: Risks and Structure
The petroleum sector deals with flammable oil and gas, hazardous gases like hydrogen sulfide, carcinogenic benzene vapours, cryogenic LNG, high-pressure LPG, and hot liquids. Workers face risks from thermal radiation and chemical exposure.
Previously, safety regulations relied heavily on the Factories Act, 1948, which, though progressive in its time, was limited in scope for petroleum operations. Medical surveillance was restricted, emergency requirements were fragmented, and enforcement was inconsistent. Across exploration, production, refineries, petrochemical plants, LNG terminals, pipelines, tank farms, and retail fuel facilities, these gaps needed urgent addressing. Inspections were inspector-driven, record-keeping was manual, and health safeguards for workers exposed to long-term hazards were insufficient. Multi-location operations required approvals from multiple departments, fragmenting safety oversight.
OSHWC Code, 2020: Key Provisions for Petroleum Safety
The OSHWC Code marks a paradigm shift from factory-centered regulation to an integrated, national, risk-focused safety system. All petroleum units—from refineries to depots—fall under a unified safety framework.
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Mandatory Risk Assessment and Operational Approvals: Structured hazard identification and risk assessment are now compulsory. High-risk operations require government approval before commencement. National standards cover handling, storage, transport, and disposal of petroleum substances, aligning with global oil and gas safety frameworks. Risk-based inspections, safety audits, emergency command structures, and digital compliance platforms are included.
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Enhanced Worker Protection: Workers engaged in hazardous petroleum operations must undergo pre-employment, periodic, and post-employment health checks, including free annual medical exams.
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Competency-Based Training and Modern Safety Standards: Handling of petroleum and hazardous chemicals is allowed only for trained and certified workers. Employers must provide and maintain safety gear, train workers in its use, and limit shifts to eight hours to manage fatigue—critical in continuous-process plants.
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Strengthened Emergency Preparedness: On-site emergency plans are now enforceable, with mandatory mock drills ensuring integrated responses to major incidents. Workers have the right to refuse hazardous work, and special protections apply to pregnant women and minors.
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Facilitation Over Inspection: The inspector-as-facilitator model, combined with risk-based inspections, digital submissions, and single-window approvals, reduces procedural complexity, aligns with global petroleum regulatory trends, and emphasizes compliance facilitation over punitive inspections.
Social Security Code, 2020: Expanded Welfare Benefits
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Extended Welfare Coverage: The Social Security Code extends ESIC coverage to petroleum workplaces, providing medical care, compensation for injuries, disability benefits, maternity protection, and support for work-related illnesses and accidents.
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Transparency and Improved Compliance: Digital social security and health records make benefits portable and enhance accountability, ensuring clarity in the entire process.
Collectively, the OSHWC and Social Security Codes transform the petroleum sector’s safety and welfare landscape. They replace a reactive, compliance-heavy system with a modern, prevention-focused, technology-enabled, and welfare-centric framework. Benefits include disciplined operations, enhanced workforce capabilities, emergency readiness, comprehensive medical monitoring, regulatory clarity, and better coordination. The outcome is safer operations, a healthy and skilled workforce, higher productivity, minimal disruptions, and robust global compliance.
These reforms strengthen the safety culture in India’s petroleum sector and bolster industrial resilience, positioning the industry for safer and more efficient growth.
