New Delhi: Labour regulations play a crucial role in protecting worker rights and ensuring that firms are accountable for maintaining safe working conditions. The Economic Survey 2024-25 tabled in the Parliament on Friday stated that India’s manufacturing (11.4% of total workforce) and construction (12% of total workforce) workforce are prone to workplace accidents.
Referring to the Safe in India Foundations’s SafetyNiti report, it highlighted the prevalence of injuries due to inadequate safety sensors and audit and training lapses in the automobile sector.
The survey urged the need for the industry to focus on prevention, training, and compliance through monitoring and audits. “Ethical conduct and fairness in business are the signs and bedrock of a mature and developed society,” it said.
While the National Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) emphasise the role of businesses in ensuring OSH in supply chains, many leading corporations have yet to effectively implement these principles, it added.
The survey pointed out that Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) regulations can be viewed as an investment in the long-term health of businesses and the economy.
“Treating workers humanely and providing for their safety and looking after them when injured make as much business sense as it is the fair and ethical thing to do. Industry associations and collective bodies must champion this cause among their members,” it said.
The labour laws for OSH have been in place since the Factories Act of 1948, and over time, new regulations have been brought in with the Employees' State Insurance Act of 1948 and the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act of 1996.
