Indian Health and Safety Legislation: Safety Officer Requirement.

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Industrial Health and Safety blogs. What are the Indian Health and Safety Legislation Requirement for  "Safety Officer"  in different states? Ans: Section 40-B. Safety Officers According to The Factories Act 1948 In every factory :- wherein  one thousand(1000) or more workers are ordinarily employed , or wherein, in the  opinion of the State Government , any manufacturing process or operation is carried on, which  process or operation involves any risk of bodily injury ,  poisoning or disease or any other hazard to health, to the person employed in the factory , the occupier shall, if so required by the State Government by notification in Official Gazette, employ such number of Safety Officers as may be specified in that notification. UTTAR PRADESH FACTORY RULES 1950 and Uttar Pradesh Factories (Safety Officers) Rules, 1984 THE TAMILNADU FACTORIES RULES, 1950, The Tamil Nadu Safety Officers (Duties, Qualifications and Condi
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What are RNOAD 1996 and RIDDOR 2013 for recording and reporting accident/incident or disease?

What are the government/ global agencies enforcement initiatives on organisations for reporting an accident/incident? What are RNOAD 1996 and RIDDOR 2013?


Duty of Care should be exercise at workplace by both Employee and their Organisation. Employee should obey the norms developed and implemented for health and safety. Similarly organisation should provide explicitness / clear cut health and safety procedures, training on these procedures, review for any gaps in the implementation, review to update the procedure and records keeping. Consultation and communication of procedure before and after development is necessary. Similarly need arise for recording, reporting and investigation of an accident/ incident/ disease happened at workplace while doing business by Organsiation to show duty of care, legally compliant etc. Employee should be aware for; in case any reportable accident/incident/ disease (Dangerous occurrence/ fatal/lost time injury) occurred during business then who will inform? what to record?, what to inform ?, where to inform ?, how to inform ?, when to inform?, what are the time limits for information to concerned authorities?, how to keep records?, How long to keep records available with the organisation? . 



So procedures guidelines can be obtained with the help of RNOAD 1996 and RIDDOR 2013.  These have been framed to develop, implement, update and review existing reporting and notification health and safety accident/incident/disease procedures for any organisation. These cover definitions of the accident/incident/disease, procedure development, investigation etc.

RNOAD 1996

RNOAD stands for Recording and Notification of Occupational accidents and diseases. This is an ILO (International Labor Organisation) code of practice framed with the objective of guidance provision to those who wants to develop provisions, procedures, methods for recording, reporting an incident/accident/disease happened at workplace. Definitions given under RNOAD as below:

Occupational Accident: An Occurrence arising out of or in the course of work which results in either fatal occupational injury or non fatal occupational injury.

Occupational Disease: A disease contracted as a result of an exposure to risk factors arising from work activity.

Commuting accident: An accident results into death or personal injury having lost time, occurring on the direct way between the places of work and the worker’s principle or secondary residence; or An accident occurring on the direct way between the place of work and the place where worker usually takes her or his meal; or The place where worker usually receives his or her remuneration.

Dangerous Occurrence: No injury however event which has potential to cause an injury or disease to persons at work or the public.

As per RNOAD 1996, organisation has to record these workplace incident/accident and disease. Report these workplace incident/accident and disease to enforcement authorities within stipulated time, within prescribed format.

Similarly United Kingdom has developed RIDDOR 2013.

RIDDOR 2013

RIDDOR 2013 stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 revised on 01 October 2013. It is a law in UK that also imposes liability on Organsiation/ occupier; requires to report and record and incident/accident and disease happened at workplace.
RIDDOR 2013 also contains list of occurrences those which should be reported are as below:
Electrical short circuit results into stoppage of plant, Collapse of lifting machinery, Collapse of scaffolding, Failure of pressure vessel, Failure of boiler etc.

Rest definitions provided under RIDDOR 2013 are almost similar to as provided in RNOAD 1996. As per UK law fatal can be considered following accident/incident within one year as occupational fatal accident. Similarly other countries have other methods like in China death within 30 days after incident considered as Fatal Occupational accident. In Hungary time limit is 90 days and some countries not mentioned any time limit like Germany, Botswana etc.

Similarly other countries also have specific guidelines on recording, reporting, notification, investigation, communication, recordkeeping of accident/incident and disease happened due to workplace activities.

Conclusion

Organisation should:

1-      Develop Incident/accident/ disease recording, reporting and investigation procedures following guidelines mentioned in RNOAD 1996, RIDDOR 2013 or other recognized guidelines.

2-      These procedures should be formed after consultation from workers, worker representative, management employees and all other stakeholders,

3-      Communicate those developed procedures to all concerned so that same can be follow in true sense immediately after the incident,

4-      Provide arrangements for incident data collection like log books, format or register for incident/accident or disease, investigation team, competent team etc.


5-      Reporting should be time bounded, clear and with all support documents.




Reference links:
www.hse.gov.uk
www.ilo.org






I am a Health and Safety professional writing blogs related to Industrial Health and Safety. I am qualified from Regional labor institute India and International Diploma from NEBOSH.

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