A news article in the Business Standard mentions the proposed changes to the Indian Factories Act. There are two proposed modifications, which I think may have an effect on process safety:
"The proposed changes to Section 64 and 65 of the Act, which deal with overtime working hours in factories, says the hours will be increased to 100 from the existing 50.
The proposals also seek to shift the blame for industrial accidents from the proprietor to the manager of a factory provided it is government-owned, by changing the definition of “occupier” of the factory in Section 2 (n) from the “person who has ultimate control over affairs of a factory” to the “person appointed to manage the factory”.
Workers who are working more hours of overtime are prone to making mistakes. There is a growing shortage of experienced qualified chemical plant operators in India and the proposed increase in overtime hours may affect process safety. The second proposed change of transferring accountability for Government owned companies to the person appointed to manage the factory may lead to a situation where the unit head in a government owned factory may resign when he or she finds things are not going his/her way with regard to process safety. This will lead to a discontinuity in managing process safety.
Read the article in this link.
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