Duty of Care in India: What Employers Owe Employees Who Travel for Work

When an employee drives four hours to a plant in another district, the company that sent them is still responsible for them. That is the idea behind duty of care: an employer must take reasonable steps to keep its people safe while they work, and work does not stop at the office gate.

This guide explains where that duty comes from in Indian law, what it means in practice for staff who travel, and how to show you met it. It is general information, not legal advice.

Where the duty comes from

India has no single law called “duty of care”. The duty is built from several pieces:

• The OSH Code, 2020. In force since 21 November 2025, it places general duties on employers to keep the workplace free from hazards and to provide safe systems of work.
• The Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923. Employers can be liable to compensate employees for injuries caused by accidents arising out of and in the course of employment, which can include work travel.
• The POSH Act, 2013. Its definition of “workplace” includes any place an employee visits in the course of employment, and transport the employer provides for that journey. Protection from harassment travels with the employee.
• The law of negligence and contract. If a company knew of a risk and did nothing reasonable about it, it can be held responsible.
• Client and industry requirements. Many large clients, especially in oil and gas, energy, infrastructure and audit, require suppliers to show a journey management or travel safety process before they award work.

None of these demands perfection. They ask whether you knew about the risk and acted reasonably. A written process and a record of following it is the clearest evidence you did.

What “reasonable” looks like for travelling staff

Know before they go

• Who is travelling, where to, by which route and vehicle, and when they will be back.
• Whether the trip is high-risk: night driving, long highway stretches, remote sites, first visits, monsoon roads.
• Who the employee should call, and who will call them.

Our journey management guide has a one-minute journey plan you can use.

Know they arrived

The most common failure is simple: nobody notices that a person did not arrive or did not come back. A back-by time, and a check that runs when it passes, closes most of that gap.

Act when something is missed

Write down who is alerted, in what order and after how long, and who takes ownership. Our escalation matrix template gives you a version to copy.

Give them a way to ask for help that works on a bad day

A phone number on a card assumes the employee can unlock a phone, find the number and talk. In an accident, a medical emergency or a threatening situation, they may not be able to. Better: an SOS that works without unlocking the phone, and that still gets through when mobile data drops on a highway.

Protect their privacy while you do it

Duty of care is not a licence to track people all day. Under the DPDP Act, 2023, location used for employment purposes still has to be limited to what the purpose needs, kept secure and deleted when it is no longer needed. In practice: location during the trip, not after it. Read more in our guide to the DPDP Act and employee location.

Keep records

For each trip: the plan, check-ins, any alerts, who responded, how fast, and the outcome. Review them monthly. They show where your process is slow, and they are what a client, an insurer or an investigator will ask for.

Duty of care checklist

• A written travel safety policy that people have read.
• Every work trip has a destination and a back-by time.
• High-risk trips are marked and get tighter checks.
• A missed back-by time escalates by itself to named people.
• Employees have an SOS that works hands-free and offline.
• Location is shared only during trips, and staff are told the rule.
• Health information stays with the employee and emergency responders.
• Trip records are kept and reviewed monthly.

How ORBII Teams helps you show duty of care

ORBII Teams is built so the reasonable steps happen without anyone having to remember them.

• Trips with a back-by time, started by the employee in the ORBII app, marked high-risk when needed.
• Automatic arrival and departure at your regular sites, only during a trip.
• Escalation up to five levels, with one owner visible to everyone.
• SOS by button, by voice or with a silent shake, and by text message without data.
• Privacy by design: location only during a trip or an SOS, seen only by the owner and the Safety Desk, every look recorded, routes deleted after seven days, and never health data.
• Records: a travel history and an audit log that show what happened and how fast.

Read about ORBII for field and lone workers, or see our Trust Center.

This article is general information about Indian law as of November 2026, not legal advice.