Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979: What Replaced It and What Changed

Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act to OSH Code, 2020: provision-by-provision map

Read this left to right: what the 1979 Act covered, where that subject now lives in the OSH Code, 2020, and whether it is unchanged, changed or dropped. Only the definitions clause appears in the supplied Code text, so it is the single row carrying a cited section; every other new-code entry describes the mechanism and is flagged below.

New-code cells are grounded in the supplied OSH Code, 2020 text only where a bracketed section is shown; the sole bracketed section in that text is [OSH Section 2], so all other new-code entries describe the mechanism and are flagged. Old-Act entries are described by subject from the repealed Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979; specific old section numbers are omitted where not certain.

What changed

The biggest shift is structural. Instead of a standalone law with its own registration and licensing machinery, inter-State migrant workers are now one category inside a single, broad safety and working-conditions Code that also absorbs the factory, contract-labour and several other regimes. The Code first fixes who the 'appropriate Government' is for each establishment [OSH Section 2], and that determination decides which authority you register with and whose rules bind you.

• The definition of an inter-State migrant worker is described as wider than the 1979 test: it is understood to reach workers who move to another state on their own for work, not only those brought in through a contractor, and to apply a wage-ceiling test. The actual figure is not shown in the supplied text and must be checked.
• A separate ISMW registration and a separate contractor licence are described as folded into the Code's single registration and contractor-licensing regime.
• Enforcement is described as moving toward an Inspector-cum-Facilitator model with a consolidated offences and penalties chapter, rather than the Act's own registering and licensing officers.

What stayed the same

The protective purpose survives intact. A worker recruited in one state to labour in another is still a recognised, separately protected class, and the duty to look after that worker's wages, travel and conditions still falls on both the employer and the contractor.

• The establishment must still be registered before it can lawfully employ this class of worker, now under the single registration regime.
• A journey-allowance idea for annual to-and-fro travel between the home state and the workplace is described as continuing.
• The expectation of non-discrimination, that migrant workers are not paid or treated worse than comparable workers doing similar work, continues.

What was dropped or newly added

Dropped: the standalone 1979 Act and its self-contained licensing and registration apparatus no longer exist as a separate law. A distinct displacement allowance paid at the moment of recruitment does not clearly carry forward as its own benefit. That point is described from the repealed Act and general understanding, not from the supplied text, so treat it as something to verify rather than assume.

Newly added: the Code layer introduces portability features the 1979 Act never had. These are described from the Code and not from the supplied text, and each should be confirmed against the enacted wording: portability of ration and welfare-cess benefits across states, a government-held record or database of migrant workers, and helpline and study obligations placed on government to track this workforce.

Transition traps for employers

• Do not assume an old ISMW registration or a standalone ISMW contractor licence still stands on its own. Confirm you are covered under the Code's single registration.
• The wider definition may sweep in self-migrated workers you never previously counted as inter-State migrants. Recount your workforce against the new test, not the 1979 one.
• Whether a worker qualifies now turns partly on a wage-ceiling test whose figure is not in the supplied text. Do not apply an old threshold from memory.
• Keep journey and travel records: the travel-benefit concept persists even as the surrounding framework changes.
• Check whether your establishment's appropriate Government is Central or State [OSH Section 2], because that decides which authority and which set of rules apply to you.
• The Central Rules were notified on 8 May 2026 and states issue their own rules. Thresholds, forms and exact figures live there and in the Code, not in the Act you used before.

How to confirm

Do not rely on this page for operative wording. Read the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and its repeal schedule, which lists the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 among the repealed laws, on indiacode.nic.in. Then cross-check the Central Rules notified on 8 May 2026 and your own state's rules for the exact thresholds, forms and figures before you act.

Frequently asked questions