Welfare Facilities in the Establishment

Three of these repay attention.

Clause (iv), sitting arrangements. A short clause with a real history. Workers in shops and on assembly lines are routinely required to stand through a shift for no reason connected with the work. The clause obliges the employer to provide seats for all employees obliged to work in a standing position.

Clause (v), the canteen, and the words "including contract labourers". The hundred is counted including contract labour. An employer cannot get below the threshold by putting part of his workforce on a contractor's roll. This is one of several places where the Code counts contract labour into a threshold and it is worth marking.

Clause (viii), the standard. The residual head is expressed by reference to what is required for a decent standard of life of the employees, which is an unusually broad statutory purpose and a good phrase to quote.

Note the inconsistency in clauses (i) and (ii). Washing facilities are required for male and female employees separately; bathing places and locker rooms for male, female and transgender employees separately. The Code says what it says, and an answer should reproduce it rather than tidy it.

Section 24(2): the seven further matters that may be prescribed

Without prejudice to sub-section (1), the Central Government may also prescribe for:

Clauses (v) and (vi) together are the most socially significant provisions in the section, and they should be taken as a pair. Building workers live on the site because the site moves. Clause (v) requires the employer to provide temporary living accommodation free of charge, within the site or as near as possible. Clause (vi) then closes the obvious escape: where the work is done through a contractor, the principal employer pays the contractor's expenses of providing it. The cost cannot be pushed down to the contractor and from him to the workers.

Note the two different thresholds in the same section, and read them carefully. Rest rooms at more than fifty; an ambulance room at more than five hundred; a welfare officer at two hundred and fifty or more. The first two say "more than", the third says "or more", so at exactly two hundred and fifty a welfare officer is required while at exactly fifty a rest room is not.

Section 24(3): the creche

The Central Government may make rules to provide for the facility of a creche, having suitable room or rooms for the use of children under the age of six years of the employees, at a suitable location and distance, either separately or along with common facilities, in establishments wherein more than fifty workers are ordinarily employed.

The proviso. An establishment may avail a common creche facility of the Central Government, a State Government, a municipality, a private entity, a non-Governmental organisation or any other organisation; or a group of establishments may pool their resources to set up a common creche as they agree.

Compare this with section 67 of the Code on Social Security 2020, which requires a creche where fifty employees are employed, gives the woman four visits a day including her rest intervals, and has the same pooling proviso. The two provisions overlap and differ:

So the Social Security Code states the entitlement more strongly and gives the visiting right; this Code fixes the age of the child and counts workers rather than employees. A full answer names both.

A worked example

Nandini runs a garment factory with three hundred workers, of whom forty are supplied by a contractor, and a construction crew of eighty building a new shed.

Washing and bathing? Washing facilities for male and female employees separately under clause (i); bathing places and locker rooms for male, female and transgender employees separately under clause (ii).

Must she provide a canteen? Yes. Clause (v) applies where one hundred or more workers, including contract labourers, are ordinarily employed. She has three hundred including the forty contract workers, and the contract workers count.

Suppose she had ninety of her own and twenty on the contractor's roll. That is one hundred and ten including contract labourers, so the canteen is still required. The clause is drafted precisely to defeat that arrangement.

Rest rooms and a lunch room? Her factory has more than fifty workers, so the Central Government may prescribe separate shelters or rest-rooms for male, female and transgender employees and a lunch-room: section 24(2)(iii).

A welfare officer? Yes. Section 24(2)(iv) covers a factory with two hundred and fifty or more workers ordinarily employed, and she has three hundred.

An ambulance room? No. Section 24(2)(i) requires more than five hundred workers in a factory, mine or construction work.

A creche? Section 24(3) allows the Central Government to make rules for a creche in an establishment with more than fifty workers, for children under six. She may provide her own or avail a common creche run by a Government, a municipality, a private entity or a non-Governmental organisation, or pool resources with other establishments.

Her cutters stand all day at the tables. Clause (iv) requires sitting arrangements for all employees obliged to work in a standing position.

Now the construction crew, engaged through a contractor.

Who houses them? Section 24(2)(v) allows rules requiring temporary living accommodation free of charge, within the work site or as near as possible, for all building workers.

Who pays, the contractor? Under section 24(2)(vi), where the work is done through a contractor, rules may require the principal employer to pay the expenses incurred on providing that accommodation to the contractor. Nandini bears the cost.

And when the shed is finished? The rules under clause (v) may provide for the removal or demolition of the temporary accommodation and for returning possession of any land obtained for it from the municipal board or other local authority.

What this does NOT mean

Section 24 does not fix the content of the facilities. Like section 23, it names the heads and leaves the standard to be prescribed.

Contract labour is not excluded from the canteen count. Clause (v) counts one hundred or more workers including contract labourers.

The creche is not confined to women's children. Section 24(3) speaks of children under six of the employees.

The thresholds are not the same. Fifty for rest rooms and the creche, one hundred for a canteen, two hundred and fifty for a welfare officer, five hundred for an ambulance room, and two of them are "more than" while the welfare officer is "or more".

A creche need not be the employer's own. The proviso permits a common creche or a pooled one.

Limits and criticism

Everything is again delegated. Section 24(1) obliges the employer to provide what is prescribed, and section 24(2) and (3) are powers to prescribe, so an unprescribed facility produces no duty.

The creche is weaker here than in the other Code. Section 67 of the Code on Social Security says an establishment shall have the facility and gives four visits a day; section 24(3) only empowers the Central Government to make rules to provide for it.

The thresholds exclude most Indian workplaces. A welfare officer at two hundred and fifty and an ambulance room at more than five hundred reach very few establishments.

Clause (i) omits transgender employees where clauses (ii) and (2)(iii) include them, which looks like an oversight rather than a policy.

Quick revision

• Section 24(1), eight facilities: washing (male and female separately); bathing places and locker rooms (male, female and transgender separately); clothes keeping and drying; seats for those obliged to stand; a canteen at one hundred or more workers including contract labourers; medical examination in mines before employment and at intervals; first-aid boxes accessible during all working hours; and any other measure required for a decent standard of life.
• Section 24(2), seven further matters: ambulance room, more than five hundred workers in a factory, mine or construction; medical facilities, uniforms and raincoats for motor transport workers; rest-rooms for male, female and transgender employees and a lunch-room, more than fifty workers in a factory or mine, and for night halts in motor transport; a welfare officer at two hundred and fifty or more in a factory, mine or plantation; free temporary accommodation for building workers, its removal and return of land; the principal employer to pay the contractor's accommodation expenses; and any other prescribed matter.
• Section 24(3): creche for children under six, where more than fifty workers are ordinarily employed, separately or with common facilities; common or pooled creche permitted.

Test yourself

1. At what number of workers must a canteen be provided, and who is counted? Where one hundred or more workers, including contract labourers, are ordinarily employed: section 24(1)(v). Contract labour counts towards the hundred.

2. State the thresholds for an ambulance room, a rest room and a welfare officer. An ambulance room where more than five hundred workers are ordinarily employed in a factory, mine or building or other construction work: section 24(2)(i). Rest rooms and a lunch room where more than fifty workers are ordinarily employed in a factory or mine, and in a motor transport undertaking where an employee must halt at night: section 24(2)(iii). A welfare officer where two hundred and fifty or more workers are ordinarily employed in a factory, mine or plantation: section 24(2)(iv).

3. Who bears the cost of housing building workers engaged through a contractor? The principal employer. Section 24(2)(vi) permits rules requiring payment by the principal employer of the expenses incurred on providing the accommodation to the contractor, where the building or other construction work is done through a contractor.

4. Up to what age of child must a creche be provided, and at what threshold? For children under the age of six years of the employees, in establishments where more than fifty workers are ordinarily employed: section 24(3).

5. May an employer use somebody else's creche? Yes. The proviso to section 24(3) permits an establishment to avail a common creche facility of the Central Government, a State Government, a municipality, a private entity, a non-Governmental organisation or any other organisation, or for a group of establishments to pool resources for a common creche as they agree.

6. Distinguish Chapter V from Chapter VI. Chapter V, section 23, deals with health, safety and working conditions: cleanliness, ventilation, dust and fumes, humidification, drinking water, overcrowding, lighting, latrines and effluent, and it applies to every establishment alike. Chapter VI, section 24, deals with welfare facilities: washing, bathing, clothes, seating, canteen, first aid, ambulance room, rest rooms, welfare officer, accommodation and creche, and it is graded by the size of the establishment.