The government is reviving talks on revamping the Factories Act of 1948 and has called a meeting of all state governments, central ministries, trade unions and industry representatives to discuss a new legislation.
Apart from speeding up registration and compliance processes to help new entrepreneurs and start-ups, the proposed new Factories Act seeks to do away with the ‘inspector raj.’ “To increase the level of competency of the inspectors,” the labour ministry has proposed that only those with a minimum B.Tech degree can become inspectors and they can enter factory premises after specific written directions of the Chief Inspector.
However, the inspection could take place without prior consent if there is a complaint from any worker or for carrying out investigation into a reported accident. “This has been proposed to remove the arbitrariness in inspection,” according to a Labour Ministry statement.
However, existing inspectors with five years of experience or more, and a degree or diploma on industrial safety will continue to be eligible to inspect a factory.
The Factories Act is a legislation that deals with safety, health and welfare of workers. The proposed law will apply to all factories that employ at least 40 workers.
The present Factories Act is applicable to establishments with 10 or more workers, if the premise is using power and to establishments with 20 or more workers, without electricity connection.
However, all factories that manufactures or deals with “hazardous substance and processes and dangerous operations will be covered under this Act even if they employ a single worker.” The sectors that manufacture hazardous processes include coal, gas, iron and steel, petroleum, cement and leather.The government had introduced Factories (Amendment) Bill 2014 in Lok Sabha in August 2014.
However, it did not come up for discussion as it was referred to a standing committee which presented its report in December 2014.
Apart from incorporating the recommendations, the government decided to make further amendments in the Factories Bill 2014. The last consultative meeting on the proposed Factories law was held in November 2015.
The proposed amendments seek to address various archaic provisions of the Factories Act. For instance, a factory manager will no longer have to send a notice to an inspector’s office for calling a worker on duty on a holiday as a notice could be served online.
In a bid to promote start-ups, the government wants to speed up the process of setting up a factory.
An employer’s proposal to treat different departments of his factory as separate companies will have to be approved or rejected in a month.
Registration of factories will also be made online and entrepreneurs will only have to submit a self-certified declaration on the safety, health and welfare standards of the factory to get approvals for setting up a factory.
Unions’ take The trade unions said this would allow more factories to stay out of the ambit of the Factories Act.
“The issue is you have made factories with less than 40 workers out of purview of this Act. This will encourage factories to divide their department into separate factories. ,” said Centre of Indian Trade Union (Citu) President A. K. Padmanabhan.
For setting up factories with hazardous activities, the site appraisal committee — a body with representatives from environment, meteorological, town planning departments — will have to convene a meeting within 15 days of receiving an application.
The committee will have to compulsorily send its recommendations within the next 30 days to the state government, from 90 days at present.
Corrections & Clarifications:
>>The report had erroneously said the present Factories Act is applicable to factories (with electricity connection) with 20 workers and factories, without electricity, with 10 workers. Actually, the Act applies to establishments with 10 or more workers, if the premise is using power and to establishments with 20 or more workers, without electricity connection.
