Safety and Health Standards, Research and Committees

In one line

The Central Government declares the safety standards, notified institutions research them, officials may survey any workplace, migrant workers get a national portal, and larger establishments must have a Safety Committee and safety officers.

In exam wording: section 18 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 requires the Central Government to declare standards on occupational safety and health; section 19 places a duty of research on notified institutions; section 20 empowers named officers to conduct safety and occupational health surveys; section 21 provides for the collection of statistics and a portal for inter-State migrant workers; and section 22 provides for Safety Committees and safety officers.

Why the law has these at all

Because the Code moved the detail out of the statute, and these five sections are what fills the space.

Section 18 is the answer to "where are the actual rules?" The Factories Act 1948 listed them; this Code declares standards instead, which can be revised without amending an Act.

Section 19 is the answer to "who works out what the standards should say?" Notified institutions research and recommend.

Section 20 is the answer to "how does anyone know whether the standards are being met?" Named officers may survey a workplace, examine plant, take samples and require workers to be examined.

Section 21 is the answer to "who are these workers and where are they?" And its second sub-section is the Code's direct response to the migrant labour crisis of 2020.

Section 22 is the answer to "who looks after safety inside the establishment day to day?" A Safety Committee with not fewer worker representatives than employer representatives, and a professional safety officer in the largest workplaces.

Some words this chapter uses

Standard here means a technical requirement declared by notification under section 18. Material impairment is a substantial reduction. Safety audit is a systematic examination of safety arrangements. Hazard and operability study is a structured technique for identifying process hazards. Portal means an internet platform. Self-declaration is a statement by the person himself without third party certification. Ordinarily employed means employed in the normal course, not on an exceptional day.

Section 18: the standards

Section 18(1), the duty. The Central Government shall declare, by notification, standards on occupational safety and health for workplaces relating to factory, mine, dock work, beedi and cigar, building and other construction work and other establishments.

Section 18(2), what the standards must relate to. Without prejudice to the generality of that power, the standards shall relate to:

• (a) physical, chemical, biological and any other hazards to be dealt with for the working life of the employee, so as to ensure to the extent feasible, on the best available evidence, that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity even with regular exposure;
• (b) norms for (i) appraising the hazards to employees and users exposed to them; (ii) relevant symptoms, appropriate treatment and the proper conditions and precautions of safe use or exposure; (iii) monitoring and measuring exposure; (iv) medical examination and other tests, made available by the employer or at his cost, to employees exposed to hazards; and (v) hazard evaluation procedures such as safety audit, hazard and operability study, fault free analysis and event free analysis;
• (c) medical examination, including criteria for detection and reporting of occupational diseases, to be extended to an employee even after he ceases to be in employment, if he is suffering from an occupational disease arising out of or in the course of employment;
• (d) such aspects as the Central Government considers necessary on the report of a designated authority;
• (e) such safety and health measures as are required by the specific conditions prevailing at workplaces relating to mine, factory, building and other construction work, beedi and cigar, dock work or any other notified establishment; and
• (f) the matters specified in the Second Schedule.