The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Dedicated managements can ensure zero accidents'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 26, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Dedicated managements can ensure zero accidents'

K. Shankar — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Violation of safety laws is not always dealt with strictly, consultant K. Shankar tells K. Satyamurty

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY has not been the priority for many companies, and they wake up only after a nasty accident, says K. Shankar, management and safety consultant to a number of major industries.

"Safety is very much a domain of the management, and care and concern for the safety of employee benefits the entire organisation,'' he says. Referring to the recent murder of a call centre employee, he feels such incidents can be prevented if there is a system to get feed back from the employees working night shift. "The supervisor should find out and record details such as where an employee is picked up and dropped, time taken for travelling and the route and if they have any observations about the behaviour of drivers... some companies may start doing that now,'' he says.

Compared to industrial workers in the West, the individual's own safety consciousness is poor in India, and managements do little to educate the workers. Many factories have a poor inventory of protective gear and even if they are available, nobody makes sure they are used and accidents keep happening. Only a committed management can ensure a "zero accident" rate.

"The multinational companies operating in India have a better safety record. Go to any automobile manufacturing plant and you find even visitors made to wear a `hardhat' till they leave the premises. In many of our industries, even the employees don't wear them with the excuse they are cumbersome,'' remarks Mr. Shankar.

Practices such as safety audits through internal and external agencies, anticipating and prevention of likely accidents at the workplace need to be enforced as much as minimum wages and other conditions of employment, he feels. In an effort to meet production and delivery deadlines, many employees taking avoidable risks may even be tacitly encouraged. Violation of safety laws is not always dealt with strictly by government agencies.

"For many in the top management, there is simply `no time' to enforce safety norms and though the ISO certification stipulates it, safety audits are only a periodical ritual. Many supervisors and team leaders refuse to anticipate that things could go wrong. In some industries workers with long hair worn loose work on machines, risking injury and nobody bothers to tell them to wear protective headgear,'' he points out.

Too little research has gone on in our country into occupational stress disorders, especially in the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services, where it is most prevalent, says Mr. Shankar. "There are ways to reduce long working hours without reducing productivity just by re-training the staff. In other cases, the managements may have to hire more staff. Since occupational stress can have adverse effects in the long term, people working on software development projects or in call centres need regular counselling,'' he says.

Preventing workplace accidents makes good business sense besides being humane. While the accident victim's family suffers extreme trauma, the organisation's reputation is damaged and the employee morale is affected. "It is a matter of emotional intelligence, supervisors and their managers need to develop more empathy with other employees. After all they spend more time with other employees than with their own families,'' he remarks.

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