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 ...
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Who should do the accident investigation?How many people should do the accident investigation?


Accident investigation is an essential element of health and safety. It requires to be done in correct manner so as to fulfill the purpose (Root cause elimination, accident prevention etc). Ideally accident investigation to be done by the person who is familiar with the process of the organization. It means if an accident happened in a petroleum storage then most suitable person to do accident investigation is anyone expert from petroleum processing. Also in combination to a process expert, it is desirable that same person should be expert in accident causation, part of accident investigation team previously.


However such type of expert is very rare and not easily available. So below are the recommendations for “Who should do the accident investigation” in such cases where above mentioned experts are not available:


Joint team formation for accident investigation. This team should includes one person from management who is aware about the accident involved process, person, location, current scenario of the organization. Similarly one person from non management (labor) should also be part of the accident investigation team. This non management person should be close to the accident workplace wherever possible. This will serve two purposes; first it promotes worker participation, second it removes fear from the mind of the other co workers who can be of great importance as an evidence provider. Now health and safety professional should also be part of accident investigation team. This will help others in accident causation, focus on all aspects like unsafe conditions, unsafe acts, equipment failure etc. To show visible leadership one person from top management should accompany the accident investigation team. Visible leadership is a key to any accident investigation. Due to involvement of any person from top management, a clear indication or message reflects that management is not going to hide any facts. Also any person who is popular in terms of his respect among workers, management then he should also be part of accident investigation team.

Immediate supervisor should also be a part of accident investigation team. This provides advantages like process aware; workplace conditions aware, person’s familiar with him, hidden facts can be unfold, better tuning with the accident concerned people etc. Also if immediate supervisor is in accident investigation team then he ultimately understands the importance of safe practices, knew the whole accident investigation method and then he may be familiar with accident causes. Sometimes it has been seen that immediate supervisor try to hide the facts so as to cover his shortcomings. This thing should be taken care of while doing accident investigation.


So it seems team of 5-6 people is enough to carry out any accident investigation.

Now to eliminate chances of biasness, team should focus on facts finding not fault finding. Explore correct methodologies to do accident investigation. Maximum time it has been seen that accident causes were written as carelessness, individual faults etc. These should be taken care of while doing accident investigation.


Thanks for your time. Please like my page safety solutions. Subscribe my blog safetysolutionorgin.

Regards
Surya.


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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