Major industrial accidents draw attention to the essentiality of stronger worker safety law.
How is occupational safety at present?
Recent notable industrial accidents include -
deaths of four people, including a senior officer, in a fire at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation gas facility in Navi Mumbai
the tragedy that killed nearly two dozen people at a firecracker factory in Batala, Punjab
A safe work environment is a basic right and India’s recent decades of high growth should have ushered in a framework of guarantees.
But, unfortunately, successive governments have not felt it necessary to ratify many fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
These cover organised and unorganised sector workers’ safety, including the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981.
India’s record in promoting occupational and industrial safety remains weak even with years of robust economic growth.
Making work environments safer remains a low priority, although the productivity benefits of such investments have always been clear.
The consequences are frequently seen in the form of a large number of fatalities and injuries.
But despite these, in a market that has a steady supply of labour, policymakers tend to ignore the wider impact of such losses.
What are the concerns in this regard?
Such incidents make it imperative that the Central government abandon its disregard for dealing with industrial safety challenges.
The government should engage in serious reform but there is not much evidence of progressive moves.
It aims to combine 13 existing laws relating to mines, factories, dock workers, building and construction, transport workers, inter-State migrant labour and so on.
However, it pays little attention to the sector-specific requirements of workers.
One of its major shortcomings is that formation of safety committees and appointment of safety officers is left to the discretion of State governments.
Evidently, the narrow stipulation on safety officers confines it to a small fraction of industries.
The ILO instruments cover several areas of activity that the recent occupational safety Code seeks to amalgamate.
But, the code comes without the systemic reform that is necessary to empower workers.
What should the priority be?
The Factories Act currently mandates the appointment of a bipartite committee in units that employ hazardous processes or substances.
This and such other provisions should certainly be retained in the new code.
It is essential, therefore, that the new Code is reworked to include the much-needed missing provisions.
