Chapter VII
Safety and Health Measure
38.Safety Committee and safety officers.-
(1) The every establishment wherein five hundred or more building workers are ordinarily employed, the employer shall constitute a Safety Committee consisting of such number of representatives of the employer and the building workers as may be prescribed by the State Government.
Provided that the number of persons representing the workers, shall, in no case, be less than the persons representing the employer.
(2) In every establishment referred to in sub-section (1), the employer shall also appoint a safety officer who shall possess such qualifications and perform such duties as may be prescribed.
39.Notice of certain accidents.-
(1) Where in any establishment an accident occurs which causes death or which causes any bodily injury by reason of which the person injured is prevented from working for a period of forty-eight hours of more immediately following the accident, or which is of such a nature as may be prescribed , the employer shall give notice thereof to such authority, in such form and within such time as may be prescribed.
(2) On receipt of a notice under sub-section (1) the authority referred to in that sub-section may make such investigation or inquiry as it considers necessary.
(3) Where a notice given under sub-section (1) relates to an accident causing death of five or more persons, the authority shall make an inquiry into such accident within one month of the receipt of the notice.
40.Power of appropriate Government to make rules for the safety and health of building workers.-
(1) The appropriate Government may, by notification, make rules regarding the measures to be taken for the safety and health of building workers in the course of their employment and the equipment and appliances necessary to be provided to them for ensuring their safety, health and protection, during such employment.
(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matter, namely:—
(a) the safe means of access to, and the safety of, any working place, including the provision of suitable and sufficient scaffolding at various stages when work cannot be safety from the ground of from any part of building of from a ladder of such other means of support;
(b) the precautions to be taken in connection with the demolition of the whole or any substantial part of a building or other structure under the supervision of a competent person and the avoidance of danger from collapse of any building or other structure while removing any part of the framed building or other structure by shorting or otherwise;
(c) the handing or use of explosive under the control of competent persons so that there is no exposure to the risk of injury from explosion or from flying material;
(d) the erection, installation, use and maintenance of transporting equipment, such as locomotives, trucks, wagons and other vehicles and trailers and appointment of competent persons to drive of operate such equipment;
(e) the erection, installation, use and maintenance of hoists, lifting appliances and lifting gear including periodical testing and examination and heat treatment, where necessary, precautions to be taken while raising or lowering loads, restrictions on carriage of persons and appointment of competent persons on hoists or other lifting appliances;
(f) the adequate and suitable lighting of every workplace and approach thereto, of every place where raising or lowering operations with the use of hoists, lifting appliances or lifting gears are in progress and of all openings dangerous to building workers employed;
(g) the precautions to be taken to prevent inhalation of dust, fumes, gases or vapors during any grinding, cleaning, spraying or manipulation of any material and steps to be taken to secure and maintain adequate ventilation of every working place or confined space;
(h) the measures to be taken during stacking or unstacking, stowing or unstowing of materials or goods or handling in connection therewith;
(i) the safeguarding of machinery including the fencing of every fly-wheel and every moving part of a prime mover and every part of transmission or other machinery, unless it is in such a position or of such construction as to be safe to every worker working on any of the operations and as if is were securely fenced;
(j) the safe handling and use of plant, including tools and equipment operated by compressed air;
(k) the precautions to be taken in case of fire;
(l) the limits of weight to be lifted or moved by workers;
(m) the safe transport of workers to or from any workplace by water and provision of means for rescue from drowning;
(n) the steps to be taken to prevent danger to workers from live electric wires or apparatus including electrical machinery an tools and from overhead wires;
(o) the keeping of safety nets, safety sheets and safety belts where the special nature or the circumstances of work render them necessary for the safety of the workers;
(p) the standards to be complied with regard to scaffolding, ladders and stairs, lifting appliances, ropes, chains and accessories, earth moving equipments and floating operational equipments;
(q) the precautions to be taken with regard to pile driving, concrete work, work with hot asphalt, tar or other similar things, insulation work, demolition operations, excavation, underground construction and handing materials;
(r) the safety policy, that is to say, a policy relating to steps to be taken to ensure the safety and health of the building workers, the administrative arrangements therefor and the matters connected therewith, to be framed by the employers and contractors for the operations to be carried on in a building or other construction work;
(s) the information to be furnished to the Bureau of Indian Standards established under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986, regarding the use of any article or process covered under that Act in a building or other construction work;
(t) the provision and maintenance of medical facilities for building workers;
(u) any other matter concerning the safety and health of workers working in any of the operations being carried on in a building or other construction work.
41.Framing of model rules for safety measures.-
The Central Government may, after considering the recommendation of the expert committee constituted under section 5, frame model rules in respect of all or any of the matters specified in section 40 and where any such rules have been framed in respect of any such matter, the appropriate Government shall, while making any rules in respect of that matter under section 40, so far as is practicable, conform to such model rules.
