New Normal: Increasing incidents of Industrial Accidents, Fire, Blasts & workplace disasters
Dilution of all environmental protection
regulations, assiduously fought for coupled with an utter lack of
transparency makes Indian workers completely vulnerable, Gujarat leads
the way
On
June 2, 2022 there was blast followed by fire in Deepak Nitrite in
Nandesari area in Vadodara district, Gujarat. The very next day there
was a blast and fire in Valiate Organic in Sarigam industrial area in
Valsad.
The
Director Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) previously known as the
Factory Inspectorate has been made defunct in terms of the number of
inspectors employed, powers to the inspectors and their training.
Clearly these developments have taken place as a result of the political
will of the Government.
Why
do we see an increase in industrial accidents? There will be and may be
specific causes behind each incident. But broadly, these are the result
of a conducive social environment created by the people in power.
The
powers that be want more FDI and to attract investment on one hand they
convince the investor that there will be no inspectors at your doors
either to ask for a bribe or for monitoring labour law implementation.
They want to jump the credit for ease of doing business rank in
competition with other countries. Policies are framed to suit the
industry. Inspectors are now not allowed to visit any factory at their
will. Instead, industry itself is inspector by way of introducing
self-certification scheme. So, now there is no Inspector Raj.
No,
they don’t stop there. They are assured, there will be no prosecution
in case of an accident. Our judiciary is burdened. So it helps both. The
Government of Gujarat(GOG) has a very unique policy. Following a fatal
accident if the employer pays ex-gratia compensation to the victim, they
are assured of no prosecution and if any cases have been filed, these
will be withdrawn. The Comptroller Editor General (CAG) has criticised
this policy in its report.
Even
when they prosecute, they are careful. They see to it that the
prosecutions are filed under the sections which would draw the minimum
fine. Post-Bhopal when the Factory Act was amended, Sec.96-A was
inserted. This section expressly outlines a penalty for the
contravention of the provisions of sections 41B, 41C and 41H of the
Act.
In
their recent reports, year after year, submitted to the DGSAFLI
(Ministry of Labor, Central Government), the GOG, states that they have
not filed any prosecutions under Sec.96-A. The report also provides data
according to which the Government loose the cases in 80% of the
prosecution filed! Government pleader and the accused both are happy
with the result. What fails is justice – justice to the accident victims
and justice to society.
In
short there is no fear of law and poor governance which has together
created a conducive social environment for accidents. This is how they
do it.
Though
the primary objective of any Government is to ensure the rule of law
and protection of all citizens without discrimination, through the
enforcement of existing laws. Over the last several years, powerful
vested interests among industry owners have ensured that the Government
cease undertaking it fundamental constitutional duty. We have a law in
force called the Contract Labour (Monitoring and Abolition) Act 1972.
Contract workers cannot be employed for perennial activities. However,
there is no will on part of Government to enforce the law and as a
result we see that the number of contract workers outnumber the
permanent workers. Inexperienced contract workers handle hazardous
plants putting everyone’s safety at stake.
When
there are no permanent workers there are no unions. Neither industry
nor Government want strong unions. Post-new economic policy Trade Unions
have been weakened as part of political will and policy. So the workers
have lost whatever little control they had over their plants.
The
lack of regular shut downs for routine maintenance, the unnecessary
haste in restarting plants after maintenance, not following SOPs during
shut down are some of the most common causes behind accidents. Out
sourcing of crucial work to the contractors further aggravates in
absence of robust monitoring mechanism.
Post-accident
investigation is done by the specialised agency called DISH. They
prepare reports submitted to the department which are kept concealed
from the people. These reports are not available in the public domain.
When you ask for reports you may be given a much diluted version of the
reports. So, the documentation is poor, there is a lack technical
expertise and even that weak report is kept hidden.
The
Industries and Department Industrial Health & Safety Department
operate with an absence of transparency. Neither the Factories Act nor
the Environment Protection Act are implemented in letter and spirit and
criminal prosecution provisions are not used against the top officials
of the industries. Neither is there a serious follow up after the
incidents. There is a need to review and evaluate all such incidences
every five years to understand the reasons and systemic action based on
that as a matter of the system.
Just condemning the disasters and demanding the compensation will not solve the problem nor stop further industrial disasters.
(The author is a health and safety expert)
The
views expressed in the articles of this column are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of the SabrangIndia
