THE AMAZON INDIA WORKERS UNION (‘AIWU’), a trade union representing the warehouse workers employed at Amazon India, has filed a formal representation before the Ministry of Labour and Employment raising serious objections to the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (‘OSHWC Code’) and the draft Rules framed thereunder in 2025.
The representation, signed by AIWU President Dharmendra Kumar and addressed to Shri Ravi Shankar Nirala, Under Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, argues that it is “imperative that the Code and the Rules have specific provisions relating to the requirement of minimum/maximum standards of heat, along with protective and preventive measures to safeguard against heat exposure.” It warns that the new Code and Rules not only fail to introduce any new safeguards against occupational heat stress, but have in fact dismantled protections that had existed for decades under the Factories Act, 1948.
A crisis hiding in plain sight
AIWU situates the objections within India's deteriorating heat crisis. Last year, record-breaking heat waves pushed temperatures above 50 degrees celsius in parts of the country. In 2024, more than 44,000 cases of heat stroke were officially recorded, a figure that AIWU notes is likely a significant undercount, as most cases in rural and informal settings go unreported.
Prolonged exposure to temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the trade union notes, is medically associated with heat exhaustion, heat stroke, increased workplace accidents, and long-term cardiovascular, respiratory, and reproductive harm. The 16th Finance Commission itself recommended adding heatwaves to India's national disaster list yet neither the new Code nor the Rules translate this recognition into enforceable workplace protections.
Warehouse workers as a uniquely vulnerable group
AIWU's objections pay particular attention to the conditions faced by warehouse workers. The trade union flags a 2024 media report documenting that Amazon warehouse workers in India were reportedly made to pledge not to take water or bathroom breaks during a heatwave. The nature of warehouse work which includes carrying heavy materials, pushing heavily loaded carts and moving at rapid speeds is classified as a “high metabolic rate activity” that significantly elevates internal body temperature.
The trade union points out that warehouses, by virtue of their sheer physical size, are extremely difficult to keep cool. Moreover, existing cooling and ventilation systems are often incapable of sufficiently reducing workers’ body temperatures when outside heat is combined with the metabolic heat generated by physical exertion.
What the law stripped away
AIWU gives a detailed account of what the new Code has dismantled. Under the Factories Act, 1948, Chapter III contained specific statutory protections addressing ventilation, temperature, thermal insulation and separation of high-heat industrial processes. Section 13 of the Factories Act required every factory to maintain “effective and suitable provision” for adequate ventilation and a “reasonable temperature,” and empowered state governments to prescribe specific wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperature limits and mandate the installation of monitoring instruments. The Model Factories Rules adopted by many states had set a maximum wet-bulb temperature of 30 degrees at 1.5 metres above the floor.
All of this has been effectively erased. The OSHWC Code's Section 23 strips state governments of their power to set heat standards and vests authority over ventilation and temperature norms in the Central Government, only to be exercised at its discretion, through notifications, with no minimum standards prescribed. Chapter II of the Factories Act, which governed the inspectorate staff with wide powers to visit, inspect and examine factories, has also been entirely eliminated, leaving enforcement of whatever protections remain almost entirely toothless. “Without an enforcement machinery,” the letter states, “it would become well-nigh impossible to ensure the safety and protection of workers.”
The constitutional and international law dimension
AIWU argues that unmitigated exposure to extreme workplace heat violates Article 21, which guarantees the right to life including the right to health; Article 14, which guarantees equality, given that climate change disproportionately affects marginalised workers; and Articles 39(e), 41 and 43, which impose state obligations to protect workers' health and ensure decent conditions of work.
On the international plane, AIWU invokes International Labour Organisation’s Conventions No. 155 and No. 187. Both Conventions were elevated to Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 2022. This entails that India bears a constitutional obligation to respect and realize the principles underlying them. Convention 155 obliges states to regulate occupational heat exposure through law, policy and enforcement, while Convention 187 requires states to maintain and progressively develop a national occupational safety and health system.
The letter also draws extensively on ILO research, including its 2024 report Heat at work: Implications for Safety and Health, which explicitly identifies indoor workers who work in warehouses, garment factories, and poorly ventilated facilities as a high-risk group. The report found that routine factory operations in ordinary hot conditions account for the bulk of harm with nine out of ten heat exposures and eight out of ten heat-related occupational injuries occurring outside formally declared heatwaves.
A set of concrete demands
Beyond its critique, AIWU's letter puts forward a set of specific legal demands. It calls for the restoration of the Factories Act's chapters on health, safety, welfare and the inspectorate, updating them to reflect the current scale of occupational heat hazards. It demands that the power to prescribe heat standards be returned to state governments which are better placed to account for regional climatic conditions. It calls for explicit employer duties to assess and control heat risks, mandatory work-rest cycles, access to drinking water and cooled rest areas, acclimatization protocols for new workers, and regular health surveillance.
On the specific Rules, AIWU objects to Rule 3’s “deemed registration” provision, which it says enables fraudulent compliance by eliminating physical verification of establishments. It calls for lowering the threshold under Rule 25 for mandatory safety committees, giving those committees statutory rather than merely advisory powers, and ensuring meaningful worker and union participation. It further demands whistleblower protections for workers who report unsafe conditions in good faith, the right of workers to independently report accidents without retaliation under Rules 10 and 11, and the provision of free regular medical examinations. “The Code and the Rules have completely obliterated any reference to hazardous work,” the letter notes.
