LOOPHOLES AND IT’S CONSEQUENCES WORKERS PARTICIPATION IN SAFETY
MANAGEMENT – 41(G)1
Worker’s participation in safety management is prescribed under section 41(G) of the Factories
Act, 1948 wherein under sub-clause 1 it says, the occupier shall establish a safety committee
consisting of an equal number of workers and management representatives in every factory
where hazardous substances are used or handled to promote worker-management cooperation in
maintaining proper safety and health at work and to review the measure taken in that regard on a
regular basis:
The workers safety and management act has been subjected to loopholes and leakages in terms
of implementation of the same since always, which has also resulted in severe consequences at
times, these loopholes should be minimized in order to bring about a better outcome of the
relevancy of this section, such incidences have been very unfortunate and repetition of the same
mistakes will cost the government and the employers in terms of man power and productivity of
the factories/institutions and thus should be avoided at all costs.
In general, health and safety provisions go hand in hand. Since factories usually operate with
heavy machinery, there have to be ample precautions and restrictions so that injuries or fatalities
are not caused at the liability of the owner. Chapter IV details an impressive number of machines
and their corresponding precautions to be taken, on closer study of these provisions we notice the
large figure of irregularities that go hand in hand with them.
Although disasters are terrifying, they frequently reveal flaws in the rules and regulations
intended to protect people from the property loss, damage, and death that such occurrences are
known to produce. Disasters can sometimes signal the need for new legislation. Such incidents
frequently prompt officials to pursue long-overdue administrative, legislative, and judicial steps.
Another aspect where we see a lack of seriousness towards the:
Non-standard worker’s rights on safe places – Platform Workers:
A person (other than an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961) employed on
wages by an establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, manual, operational,
supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical, or clerical work for hire or reward, whether
the terms of employment are express or implied, is defined as an employee in respect of an
establishment in the draught OSH Code. A person can also be labelled an employee by the
competent government, according to the draught law. For the purposes of this Act, the federal or
state governments may consider platform workers to be employees and so offer them all of the
same rights as ordinary workers.
1
Factories Act, 1948 subsection 41G
Both the Factories Act of 1948 and the proposed OSH Code2 compel employers to ensure their
employees' health and safety. However, this is only relevant to workers. Platform employees are
now unprotected under the law.
Workers delivering services through platforms are not protected from occupational dangers,
hence the government has no role to play. If they encounter an occupational hazard, they can file
a civil court case against the platform user to whom they provided services or against the
platform, which is unfortunate because cases are delayed by this method, and the government
should take appropriate steps to bring the matter under the Factories Act, 1948, and thus be
resolved by the tribunals established for the purpose.
2
OSH Act of 1970