SHRI FERNANDES INAUGURATES REGIONAL LABOUR INSTITUTE AT FARIDABAD

The Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment Shri Oscar Fernandes has emphasized the need for the concerned agencies to come together periodically and deliberate upon the matters of Occupational Safety and Health, which are of national importance and have implications in the administration of the Factories Act. In this context he mentioned that the Government of India is seriously contemplating comprehensive amendments in the Factories Act, 1948 and they are in its final stage.

Shri Fernandes said this while inaugurating the Regional Labour Institute at Faridabad in Haryana today. The 49th Conference of Chief Inspectors of Factories also began on this occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, he informed the audience that the National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) has been approved by the Government. He hoped that the new policy would provide direction and impetus to the safety movement and enhance the status of safety in the country. He said that the National OSH Policy along with the existing Environmental Policy, which is already in place, would go a long way in improving the status of Occupational Safety, Health and Environment in the country.

Expressing satisfaction over the fact that India's performance in ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions has been better than most of the member countries of ILO, the Minister informed that Convention -174 concerning 'Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents' has already been ratified by India last year. This, he said, shows the Government's resolve and firm commitment in dealing with the matters of international obligation concerning safety and health.

The Minister said that Safety is neither a practice nor a concept, but a tool for recognizing the dignity and beauty of human existence and the issue of safety must be considered as basic, fundamental and inalienable right of the labour force which in no condition, can be bargained, negotiated or compromised.

Shri A.C. Chaudhary, the Minister of Labour & Employment, Government of Haryana presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary Labour & Employment, Smt. Sudha Pillai called upon the safety and health experts to devise mechanisms and approaches of self-regulation and compliance on the part of the managements, so that they are empowered to take measures to regulate the manufacturing activities in the best interest of the work force. She said that her Ministry is making serious efforts to ratify some of the important ILO conventions related to OSH.

She said that the Ministry of Labour & Employment has been taking a number of steps from time to time to keep the legislations pertaining to safety and health abreast of the developments taking place in the socio-economic front. In this direction Factories Act of 1948, has been amended several times in consonance with technological developments and changing times and the last amendments were carried out in the year 1987. Smt. Pillai informed that comprehensive amendments to the Factories Act, 1948 have been proposed and are in the final stage of approval.

The objective of the Institute is to provide research, training and consultancy services to the manufacturing sector to improve Occupational Safety and Health at work place. The Institute would also provide services in the specialized areas of chemical safety, risk analysis and emergency preparedness in the major hazard installations and also in the small scale sector in the country. It is equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment, machinery, laboratories and infrastructure compatible with international standards in the areas of Safety and Health. The Institute is poised to emerge as a center of excellence in all the matters of Occupational Safety and Health in the Northern region of the country in the coming decades. Occupational safety and health reform underway: proposed amendments to the Factories Act to strengthen the OSH framework. Comprehensive amendments to the Factories Act, 1948 are in the final stages of government approval to modernize workplace safety law, supported by an approved National OSH Policy and alignment with international obligations; the revisions aim to strengthen compliance, inspection capacity, risk analysis, chemical safety, emergency preparedness and institutional training and consultancy for improved Occupational Safety and Health.