'Workers must be involved'

Interview with Stirling Smith.

Workers from 15 major ports in India attended a workshop on hazardous waste and cargo in Chennai recently. Organised by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the workshop was conducted by Stirling Smith, an expert on labour health and safety. Smith, who is currently associated with the London-based Labour and Society International (LSI), has been a keen observer of the trade union movement in India in the past one decade.

Stirling Smith, who took his doctoral degree in the history of the trade union movement in the United Kingdom, has been involved in worker education in the U.K. over the last two decades. He first visited India in 1986 on behalf of the Commonwealth Trade Union Council, an apex body of trade unions in Commonwealth countries. He visited India again in 1992 as the head of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) project involving trade unions of India and Bangladesh. The project dealt with worker education and issues relating to occupational health and safety in the mining, textile and plantation sectors.

T.A. HAFEEZ

As a consultant to the LSI, Stirling Smith has been associated with projects on labour health and safety in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. In recent years, he has been associated with Indian trade unions working among port and dock workers, miners and the workers of the Railways and has been focussing on issues relating to occupational health and safety in these sectors.

According to Smith, since port and dock workers are at the forward line of the trade in hazardous and toxic waste, they are likely to be the first to be affected by the harmful effects of hazardous cargo. He urged the Indian Government to ratify the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and Their Disposal immediately. He, however, said that much more needs to be done, particularly regarding the establishment of a stringent control regime to prevent the dumping of hazardous and toxic waste in the country.

In an interview to V. Sridhar, he explained the nature and structure of the international trade in toxic waste. He also said that legislation should provide an active role for dock workers' unions in the implementation of the ban on hazardous and toxic cargo.

Excerpts from the interview:

What is India's record in implementing the Basel Convention?

Initially, India played a positive role in the Basel Convention process. But this has slackened in recent times. There seems to have been heavy lobbying by the United States and international chambers of commerce. India has not ratified the Convention.

Until the ban comes into force, countries have the option of having their own national legislation to ban the trade in toxic waste. Although there is no such legislation in India, there is the Supreme Court decision of 1997, which prohibits the import of hazardous waste. The Supreme Court laid a blanket ban on the import of hazardous and toxic waste.

At the workshop we asked workers whether they were aware of the Supreme Court's decision. They not only said that they did not have any information or guidelines, but also said that their port trust authorities had no information on the matter. Moreover, neither the Directorate-General of Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), the agency entrusted with the task of ensuring safety on the docks at the major ports, nor the Customs authorities seem to have any information.

In 1991, the Ministry of Surface Transport sent a circular to the major port trusts, warning them about the smuggling of hazardous and toxic waste into the country. The authorities at the major ports have not done anything about the problem.

The slackening of India's efforts at the Basel Convention seems to be in line with its recent role at other international forums (such as the Convention on Climate Change at Kyoto). India seems to have pulled back from playing a progressive role. In contrast, the African countries have been active on the hazardous waste issue and have their own treaty now (the Lome Convention). Many other countries have participated in regional conventions banning the toxic trade; these supplement the efforts at the Basel Convention.

What are the steps that need to be taken by the Government after the ratification of the Basel Convention?

One, there needs to be clear guidelines for all the agencies concerned. The Customs, the State and Central pollution control boards, the DGFASLI and the port trusts have to be involved in implementing the ban. Coordination among them is needed. I would think that the Coast Guard should have a role because there may be efforts to land waste in isolated areas along the long Indian coastline.

Two, there is a problem of organisations trying to cheat the ban. The toxic waste trade is a cloak-and-dagger business. There are companies in the U.S., for instance, that ship toxic waste in falsely labelled containers (usually as fertilizers or pesticides) and sell it in the importing country. Or, the companies abroad set up a benami company in the importing country, which does not pick up the hazardous cargo. The cargo just lies at the port unclaimed.

What would the role of port and dock workers be in a regime implementing such a ban?

There is a general problem in that environmental legislation in India gives no role to trade unions. Look at the Environmental Protection Act and the rules framed under it - there is no role for unions. This is unlike the health and safety laws relating to workers. For instance, the Mines and Factories Act provides for workers' involvement in implementation of laws relating to mine safety. Some years ago, when I pointed this out to a joint secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, I was told: "No, we will not work with the unions. We only work with non-governmental organisations."

I think workers must be involved because they are at the front line of the toxic trade problem. They are the ones who unpack and handle the cargo. They are the ones who will be checking whether the cargoes are properly labelled or whether the consignment papers are in order. The workers are in a position immediately to notify the authorities of suspicious cargo. Above all, they are the ones who will first face the health and safety consequences of handling such cargo. In fact, there are two aspects to the problem of hazardous waste imports. One is that the import of such substances pollutes the soil, water and air. The other aspect is that it is harmful to human beings who deal with such substances during the course of their work.

What can workers and trade unions do to stop the entry of toxic wastes into the country?

Trade unions have to link up with NGOs to get information. This will enable Indian trade unions to be aware of the sources from where toxic waste imports are coming into India.

There are some patterns in the international toxic waste trade. We need to investigate them. We need to know which countries are more prone to waste exports and imports and which shipping lines are used for such trade. We can then put the active players in the business on a red list and keep a watch. The ITF is good at this because it has already conducted such an exercise during its Flags of Convenience Campaign. The ITF is also very good at targeting particular ships or companies. We can use that experience in the campaign against the trade. The ITF's links with the International Chemical, Energy and Mine Workers' Union (ICEM) will also help the campaign. There is no way that port and dock workers can fight this battle on their own.

There are some very big multinational companies dealing in waste. Many of them are British or U.S. companies. Waste disposal is big business. The bigger companies may not directly handle the disposal of waste. However, a network of sub-contracting companies constitute the really dirty end of the business. In fact, this is what makes it difficult to monitor.

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