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Farm Crisis | Unemployment
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What's Inside

The present report 'Crushed 2021', Safe in India Foundation's (SII) annual report on the state of worker safety in the Indian auto sector, further develops the case for systemic action with:

  • Data across 5 years and on 2500+ injured workers from the auto sector.
  • Assessment of other auto-sector hubs in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand, and case studies from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
  • Multivariate data analysis to improve understanding of accidents and injuries.
  • Establishing urgency of focus on the “dangerous” power press and legal violations that result in over 50 percent of these accidents.
  • Top 5 recommendations to the auto-sector original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Society of Indian Auto Manufacturers (SIAM), Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), and the government.

The key findings of Safe in India Foundation's report Crushed 2021, 3rd edition (released on 26th January, 2022) are as follows (please click here to access):

  • 80 percent of the injured workers met with accidents in the supply chains of some of the largest auto-sector brands;
  • 70 percent lost their hands/ fingers;
  • 1.97 fingers on average lost to a crush injury;
  • 92 percent migrant workers; 81 percent educated only up to grade 10;
  • 71 percent earned less than Rs. 10,000 a month (many with no overtime pay despite ~12-hour shifts); 70 percent on contract; 62 percent under 30;
  • The lower the salary and education of a worker, the worse the injury;
  • About 70 percent received their ESIC Identity Card after the accident and not on the date of joining. These workers/ families could not use ESIC through their working lives, until they suffered grave injuries;
  • Maruti-Suzuki, Hero, Honda suppliers remain the largest contributors to accidents in Gurugram (93 percent) and Faridabad (75 percent). Bajaj, Eicher, JCB, Tata Motors, TVS, Yamaha suppliers also significant contributors in Gurugram, Faridabad, Rudrapur, Neemrana;
  • Not just a small MSME problem: accidents in 22 percent of ACMA members (some of the largest factories/suppliers);
  • The auto sector has the muscle/influence to prevent accidents and push up Indian labour productivity from its current rank of 115th in the world;
  • Haryana factory inspections have largely been reduced for years. Penalties for infractions to the Factories Act are rarely imposed and are in any case insignificant to change factory owners’ behaviours;
  • The new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH & WC) labour code has at least 8 major dilutions of factory safety;
  • Over 50 percent injuries reported to SII occur on power press machines;
  • Two times probability of losing fingers on a power press machine; a worker loses half a finger more to a power press than other machines;
  • A majority of the workers injured on power presses inadequately trained and have low education levels;
  • Young and old workers lose fingers equally on power presses; experience does not seem to make up for unsafe machines;
  • A majority of the crush injuries were on power presses that should have had safety sensors but did not; other required PPE also often missing;
  • Most factories violate many extant regulations; potential criminal offenses.

----

    Five operational recommendations to OEMs in the CRUSHED series of reports:

    • OEM boards to take responsibility for worker safety in their deeper supply chain.
    • Create a joint industry-level task force with SIAM (with some participation from SII).
    • Map their deeper supply chain.
    • Improve transparency and accountability of accident reporting in the supply chain, weed out habitual offenders and reward safest factories, commercially.
    • Initiate ground-level actions, e.g., honest worker safety audits and worker training.

    ----

    Five policy recommendations to OEMs as reported in SafetyNiti 2021 of SII:

    • Include all contract workers in own factories in their OSH Policy framework.
    • Create, publish, and implement a Supplier Code of Conduct.
    • Create, publish, and implement a Standard Operating Procedure for supply chain factories.
    • Report annually on SDG8.8 (the only SDG about worker safety).
    • Demand minimum compliance from their supply chains. (e.g. all workers should be covered by ESIC from their first work day).

    ----

    Five operational recommendations to the central and state government (labour code/rules recommendations not covered in this report)

    • Drive calibrated actions to achieve the objectives of the OSH Policy, 2009.
    • Use accident/ injury data from ESIC to determine selection of factories for inspection and conduct safety surveys.
    • Create a reliable accident/injury reporting and governance system, and use it for ongoing improvements.
    • Set up a confidential helpline for workers to report unsafe working conditions and accidents in factories.
    • Develop a practical policy and mechanism for safety training of contract and migrant workers.

    KEY OBSERVATIONS (in detail):

    • Thousands of workers continue to lose their hands/ fingers (“crush injuries”) every year in the Indian auto sector.
    • 80 percent of all SII-assisted injured workers are from auto-component factories.
    • A majority of these injured workers are the most marginalised and vulnerable.
    • A typical crush injury to fingers results in the loss of almost two (1.97) fingers per injured worker.
    • 70 percent of injured workers get their ESIC “e-Pehchaan” Card only after the accident (not on the day of joining the job, as they should).
    • The lower the salary and education – the worse the injury!
    • About half of the injured workers reported shift timings more than 12 hours, and were often not paid for overtime at the legal rates, in violation of the Factories Act.
    • The Indian auto sector is critical to not only the Indian economy and manufacturing, now and in the future, but also to the lives, working conditions, and productivity of millions of Indian workers.
    • Crush injuries in the auto sector continue in the thousands - nationally.
    • Although accidents in Gurugram appear to have recently reduced (potentially due to disruption in production during Covid), the situation in Faridabad appears to be worse than Gurugram.
    • Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) and Neemrana (Rajasthan), two relatively smaller auto-sector hubs, too, have high incidence of injuries in their auto-component factories.
    • Top 3 responsible OEMs: In Gurugram and Faridabad, suppliers to Maruti-Suzuki, Hero, and Honda continue to be the largest contributors to these accidents.
    • Other than the above top 3 responsible OEMs, JCB, Tata Motors, Yamaha, Eicher, TVS, and Bajaj are also significant contributors to accidents in Gurugram, Faridabad, Rudrapur, and Neemrana.
    • ACMA members (some of the largest factories/ suppliers) continue to have 22 percent of all accidents in Gurugram; it is not just a small factory problem.
    • Worker accidents have been under-reported for decades: Haryana state-reported accident numbers are not even 5 percent of reality.
    • Haryana state’s factory inspections have been reducing for years (though marginal improvement seen in 2018/19).
    • Anecdotal feedback shared by workers also demonstrates the ineffectiveness of factory audits.
    • The penalties for Factories Act infractions are rarely imposed and are in any case insignificant to change factory owners’ behaviours.
    • The new OSH & WC labour code may make factory safety worse.
    • A majority of the crush injuries reported to SII happen on power press machines; press machines in Faridabad are worse than those in Gurugram.
    • Power presses are essential in the supply chain of all auto sector brands.
    • The probability of losing fingers on a power press machine is twice as much as other machines, and a worker loses half a finger more on a power press machine accident than on other machines.
    • Both young and old workers lose fingers equally on these power presses; experience does not seem to make up for unsafe machines.
    • Despite power presses being “dangerous”, most workers injured on power presses were inadequately trained and had low education levels.
    • A majority of these crush injuries happened on power presses that should have had safety sensors but did not; in most cases, other required PPE was also missing.
    • A multitude of violations of extant rules and regulations for power presses; many would be potential criminal offences.
    • These accidents can be significantly reduced with small investments, leading also to savings/ productivity gains.

    Rural Expert
     

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