Invisible by Design: Why India’s new Labour Codes leave migrant workers behind
As the Centre prepares to notify rules under all four labour codes, the workers most in need of protection discover that consolidation has come at the cost of their rights — and that the new law offers them less than the one it replaced.
Abdullah Ghazali
31 March 2026
INTER-STATE MIGRANT WORKERS are already leaving the country’s industrial hubs as shortages of commercial LPG and piped natural gas have disrupted access to affordable food, making survival in native places easier than in urban industrial areas. What is less familiar is that the law meant to protect these workers when crisis strikes is about to get weaker, not stronger.
As per reports, the Union government is preparing to notify the rules under all four labour codes, with implementation expected as early as April. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (‘OSH Code’), which subsumes and repeals 13 legislations, including the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 (‘ISMW Act’), is unlikely to benefit inter-state migrant workers. These workers are employed across multiple sectors, including construction, manufacturing, mining, agriculture and other related activities. The ISMW Act provided detailed provisions on the facilities and welfare amenities to be provided to migrant workers, including journey allowance, displacement allowance, the issuance of passbooks, and accommodation requirements. Several of these protections have been omitted under the OSH Code.
The selective reintroduction of a wage ceiling under the OSH Code for migrant workers undermines the protections previously offered to vulnerable migrant workers.
Inclusive in form, exclusionary in practice
The OSH Code defines an inter-state migrant worker as someone from one State employed directly or indirectly by the principal employer to work in another state. The OSH Code introduces a wage ceiling of ₹18,000 per month for migrant workers, excluding them from the Code's protections if they earn above it.
Migrant workers’ precarity is not determined solely by wages — it is shaped by other factors, such as poor working conditions, lack of workplace social security entitlements, and language barriers. A migrant worker earning more than the prescribed wage ceiling in a hazardous worksite does not cease to be vulnerable. In contrast, the Code on Wages, 2019, removed the wage ceiling for payment of wages and scheduled employment under minimum wages, thereby including a wider group of workers. The selective reintroduction of a wage ceiling for migrant workers undermines the protections previously offered to vulnerable migrant workers.