Three kinds of event trigger a notice under the OSH Code 2020: a death, an injury that keeps someone off work for 48 hours or more, and a listed dangerous occurrence whether or not anyone is hurt. The site's employer files it, whoever pays the injured worker. The windows are measured in hours, and the Tamil Nadu draft rules use different forms and a different deadline from the Central Rules on the point sites miss most often.
What has to be reported
Four kinds of event, each under its own section of the Code.
| Event | What triggers the duty | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Death | An accident at any place in the establishment that causes death | s.10(1) |
| Lost-time injury | Bodily injury that prevents the person working "for a period of forty-eight hours or more immediately following the accident" | s.10(1) |
| Dangerous occurrence | An event of a prescribed kind, "whether causing any bodily injury or disability, or not" | s.11 |
| Notifiable disease | A worker contracts a disease listed in the Third Schedule | s.12(1) |
The doctor carries a separate duty. A qualified medical practitioner who treats a person for a Third Schedule disease must report it in writing to the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator without delay, and faces a penalty of up to ₹10,000 for failing to (s.12(2) and (3)). That report does not discharge the employer's own notice under s.12(1).
The dangerous-occurrence list reaches further than most sites expect. Rule 7(4) of the Central Rules lists eighteen classes, and the Tamil Nadu draft annexes its own list to draft rule 8. Both include the collapse or failure of cranes, hoists, lifting appliances and conveyors; explosion, fire, and the release of toxic gas or molten metal; the collapse of a floor, wall, platform or scaffolding; spillage of hazardous substances; falling objects and falls from loading or transport machinery; and, in identical words, "collapse, capsizing, toppling or collision of transport equipment within the establishment".
How fast: Central and Tamil Nadu side by side
For a private factory in Tamil Nadu the appropriate government is the State, and the State's rules are still in draft; the OSH (Central) Rules 2026 bind central-sphere establishments. The two agree on most points and differ on the one that trips sites up.
| OSH (Central) Rules 2026, r.7 | Tamil Nadu draft rules 2022, r.8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Death: immediate calls | By telephone and electronically to the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator, the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Officer, the jurisdictional police station, and the victim's family or kin (r.7(1)) | By telephone, special messenger or electronically to the same inspectors, the District Collector or Sub-Collector or Revenue Divisional Officer, the nearest police station, and the family or kin (draft r.8(1)) |
| Death: written notice | Form-XI to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator "forthwith" (r.7(1)) | Form IV within 12 hours of the accident (draft r.8(1)) |
| Lost-time injury | Form-XI electronically, within 12 hours after the 48 hours are complete (r.7(2)) | Form IV within 24 hours after the 48 hours are complete (draft r.8(2)) |
| Dangerous occurrence | Within 12 hours to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator and the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Officer (r.7(3)) | Form IV within 12 hours to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator and the Collector, Sub-Collector or Revenue Divisional Officer (draft r.8(3)) |
| Injured person dies later | Forthwith by telephone and electronically, confirmed in writing within 12 hours of the death (r.7(3), first proviso) | The same (draft r.8(3), first proviso) |
| Disability builds up in spells | Form-XI within 24 hours after the total reaches 48 hours (r.7(3), second proviso) | Within 24 hours after the total reaches 48 hours (draft r.8(3), second proviso) |
| Return to work | Not addressed in r.7 | No return without a fitness certificate from a qualified medical practitioner (draft r.8(4)) |
| Long absence | Not addressed in r.7 | Form V within 28 days if the worker is not back within 21 days, then every fortnight until return, and within 7 days of removal from the muster roll (draft r.8(5)) |
Because the 48 hours run "immediately following the accident", the lost-time deadline works out to 60 hours from the accident under the Central Rules and 72 hours under the Tamil Nadu draft. The longer Tamil Nadu window is a buffer, not a plan: a site that works to the Central twelve hours is inside both. The larger difference is the follow-up regime in draft rule 8(5), which the Central rule does not have and which runs for weeks after the first notice. That is where accident files usually go quiet.
Who files when the injured worker is a contractor's
The site, at the least. The Code defines an employer in section 2(u) as a person who employs "whether directly or through any person" one or more employees in his establishment, names the occupier as the employer of a factory, and separately "includes ... contractor". Section 10(1)(b) places the notice for a factory on the "employer or manager in relation to such establishment", and both rule sets place it on "the employer of the establishment". The occupier is squarely inside those words. The contractor may be as well.
The practical consequence is that the duty follows the establishment where the accident happened, not the wage roll the worker is on. A site that assumes its contractor has sent the notice is resting a statutory deadline on another company's diligence.
- Inter-state migrant workers: both States and the family. For a fatal accident or serious bodily injury to an inter-state migrant worker, section 60(ii) requires "every contractor or the employer" to report to the specified authorities of both States and to the worker's next of kin. That is in addition to the section 10 notice, not instead of it.
- ESI coverage does not discharge it. Tamil Nadu draft rule 8(5) says that even if the injured person is covered by the Employees' State Insurance scheme, "it shall be the responsibility of the employer of the establishment" to obtain the information and report it. Most contract workers are ESI-insured, and the accident report the ESIC needs is a separate document for a separate purpose.
- The 48-hour clock sits in the contractor's attendance record. Whether an injured contract worker has been off for 48 hours is something the contractor's roster knows before the site does. The work order should require the contractor to report the absence to the site on the same shift.
What follows a notice
An inquiry for a death, and penalties that attach to two different failures. For a fatal accident in a plantation, a construction site or any other establishment, the authority receiving the notice must inquire into it within two months (s.10(2)).
The two penalties are separate. Section 103 punishes the unsafe condition that caused the accident; section 97 covers the missing paperwork, since the Code has no penalty specific to a missed notice and section 97 reaches a contravention of "any provision of this Code or of any rule". One accident can produce both. Repeat convictions are heavier on each: up to three months' imprisonment or a ₹2 lakh fine under section 97(2), and double the first penalty under section 103(2).
What counts as serious is defined, and the line is lower than it sounds. A serious bodily injury under section 2(zzg) includes any injury that involves, or in all probability will involve, the permanent loss or loss of use of any part of the body, permanent injury to sight or hearing, permanent physical incapacity, "or the fracture of any bone or one or more joints or bones of any phalanges of hand or foot". A broken finger qualifies.
A notice drill for a contract floor
None of this can be worked out on the day. It has to be set up in advance, on the site's side of the gate.
- A printed call list on every shift: the Inspector-cum-Facilitator, the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Officer (in Tamil Nadu, the Collector, Sub-Collector or Revenue Divisional Officer), the jurisdictional police station, and a working way to reach each worker's family. Checked monthly, because a wrong number at the moment of a death is the failure that matters most.
- One named owner of the notice per shift, on the site's side, regardless of whose worker was hurt.
- The contractor reports absence the same shift, written into the work order, so that the 48-hour clock is known when it starts rather than discovered when it has run out.
- Tip-overs, falling objects and spills are logged as reportable at the time, not reviewed later as near-misses.
- The follow-up does not stop at the first notice. In Tamil Nadu that means the Form V reports every fortnight until the worker is back, ESI or not, and a fitness certificate before they return to the floor.
- Inter-state migrant workers get two States and a family call, under section 60(ii), on top of everything above.
How Velura Services helps
Our supervisors are trained on what must be reported and how fast, and report through your site's process from the floor. We keep the accident record for our crew and give your safety team what it needs for the statutory notice, and the record is complete.
Sources
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act 37 of 2020), Gazette text hosted by DGFASLI — s.2(u) (employer, including the occupier of a factory and a contractor), s.2(zzg) (serious bodily injury), s.10(1) and (2) (notice of accidents; inquiry into a death within two months), s.11 (dangerous occurrences), s.12 (notifiable diseases, and the medical practitioner's duty and ₹10,000 penalty), s.60(ii) (inter-state migrant workers: both States and next of kin), s.97 (general penalty, ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh), s.103 (contravention resulting in an accident). Opened and read.
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 345(E) dated 8 May 2026 — r.7(1) to (4), notice of accidents and dangerous occurrences in Form-XI, and the list of eighteen classes of dangerous occurrence. Opened and read from a mirrored copy of the Gazette [VERIFY: against the e-Gazette original].
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Tamil Nadu) Rules, 2022 (draft), G.O. Ms. No. 38, 11 April 2022 — draft r.8(1) to (5), notice in Form IV, the fitness certificate before return, the Form V follow-up reports, and the annexed list of dangerous occurrences. Opened and read. Draft only [VERIFY: whether Tamil Nadu has since notified final rules].