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Industrial Safety Management >Chapter 3 > Topic –Employee Participation in Safety > Subtopic- Safety Committee-Structure & Functions

Safety Committee- Structure & Functions 





As per the section "41 G- Workers Participation in Safety Management" of the Factories Act 1948 & As per the  Rule "73 J-Safety Committee" of the Maharashtra Factories rules,1963

Formation of Safety Committee is mandatory where ,

1. Factories employing workers more than 250
2. Factories carrying dangerous operations u/s 87
3. Factories listed in the First Schedule and as per section 2-cb 

Structure of the Safety Committee -
  • A senior official shall be the Chairman
  • A Safety Officer or Factory Medical Officer shall be the Secretary
  • A representative each from the production, maintenance and purchase departments shall be members
  • Workers representatives, of equal number, shall be elected by the workers
Tenure-
  • The tenure of the committee shall be 2 years
  • At least one meeting in 3 months. Minutes shall be recorded and produced before the Factory Inspector on demand

Right-
  • The committee has right to be informed of potential hazards of work places and data on accidents and working environment. The committee shall keep the data confidential and use it solely to guide on safety measures

Functions & duties:
  1. Co-operation to implement health and safety policy.
  2. All matters of health, safety and environment and solutions to problems in that regard. 
  3. Creation of safety awareness amongst workers. 
  4. To conduct educational, training and promotional activities.
  5. To  discuss  reports on safety, health and environmental surveys, safety audits, risk assessment, emergency plans and implementation of the recommendations of the reports.
  6. To carry out health and safety surveys and identify causes of accidents.
  7. To look into complaints of imminent danger and suggest corrective measures.
  8. To review the implementation of its own recommendations.
  9. To form sub-committees, if necessary. 
Policy and Procedure: 
  • When a committee is formed, written instruction should be issued covering (1) Scope of activities (2) Extent of authorities and (3) Procedure as to time/place of meeting, frequency of meeting, order of business, records to be kept and attendance requirements. 
  • The management should make it clear that it wants results and should give effective executive supervision over the affairs of the committee. 
  • The committee members should have firm determination to advance the cause of Safety. 

Advantages of Safety Committee - 
  1. Brings together varying view points, yield sounder .decisions than the individual members. 
  2. Widens interest by allowing participants of work-people in their own work.
  3. Allows checks and cross-checks by different opinions which are essential for safety.
Disadvantages  of Safety Committee - 
  1. Causes delay into the decisions till the meetings are held. 
  2. Consumes more time in meetings 
  3. May sometimes turn into a trade union meeting if so pulled by the employees. Therefore its good control to the point is necessary.

References : 

  • Fundamentals of Industrial safety & health by Dr. K.U. Mistry 
  • The Factories Act , 1948

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