Introduction
On December 20th, CRUSHED 2024, the sixth report in the series was launched:
Based on experience of 7000+ injured workers in the auto sector supply chain of top 10 automobile brands.
New insights on women workers’ conditions including a new Worker Led Participatory Research, with over 200 colleagues, using Factory and Body Maps to identify safety hazards and their impacts.
“The country needs these improvements to scale up our supply chains and compete better, globally. We cannot, forever, rely on “low-road” manufacturing based on low-cost labour arbitrage. We need to take a “high-road” of better working conditions driving higher value and quality production, which is not possible with our current short term jugaad-mindset.” - Sandeep Sachdeva, Co-founder & CEO Safe in India Foundation
A panel discussion with three injured workers:
Three injured workers (Ms. Suchita Saini, Mr. Ram Ji Pandey & Mr. Dinesh Pandey), and Mr. Dheeraj (Lead Programmes, PRAXIS) spoke to Safe in India and presented their participatory research using factory, body, and daily schedule mapping to describe all dimensions of worker safety. Additionally, they spoke about their expectations and recommendations for factories, brands, and the government.
“Among the 200 workers I have interacted with as part of the participatory research, none of them received salary slips. My recommendation is that workers should get permanent employment, as this would result in salaries credited to the account and Haryana-grade (legal minimum wages) pay.” - Suchita Saini
“In my factory, 4-5 workers suffer serious (crush) injuries, 5-7 workers suffer minor injuries and there are 10-12 near misses.” - Dinesh Pandey
“In factories, operators hired are not trained. They are expected to start working immediately resulting in accidents.” - Ram Ji Pandey
Some of the recommendation/ expectations directly stated by them: “We want owners and management of the auto component factories to meet the basics for a fair arrangement between us” “We want more support and monitoring by the State and Central Governments” |
“The 'CRUSHED 24’ report by the Safe in India Foundation highlights the urgent need for change while offering a roadmap to a safer, more inclusive future. In collaboration with the Safe in India Foundation, we are committed to raising awareness and reducing shopfloor accidents across the industry.” - Shradha Suri Marwah, President ACMA
Expert panel on improving workers safety in the supply chain:
A second discussion with experts including Mr. Sunil Arora (MD, Abilities India Pistons & Rings Ltd.), Mr. Raghavan Srinivasan (Business Line, Former Editor), Ms. Harpreet Kaur (Business & Human Rights Specialist, UNDP) and Mr. Shreehari Paliath (Policy Analyst, IndiaSpend) was moderated by Ms. Saroja (Head Worker Safety & ESIC Systemic Change).
This panel discussed worker safety in the automotive industry and emphasized that worker safety is not just a moral imperative but a strategic business decision, driving efficiency and sustainability. They highlighted the need for greater accountability across the supply chain, especially concerning Tier 2, 3 and 4 suppliers. The discussion also touched upon regulatory implementation, the role of automobile brands in enforcing safety standards, and the importance of consumer awareness in driving change.
“Safety makes great business sense. Unsafe companies disappear into thin air. They just go away.” - Sunil Arora, Managing Director, Abilities India Pistons & Rings Limited
“Worker well-being is fundamental to productivity, brand reputation, and compliance with global standards.” - Harpreet Kaur, Business and Human Rights Specialist, UNDP
“There is a fundamental problem in how the automobile sector supply chain is mapped. The OEMs (brands) do not have visibility below tier 1 suppliers (and need to).” - Shreehari Paliath, Policy Analyst, IndiaSpent
“The brands have adopted plausible deniability; companies know what is happening in their supply chains, The pressure to change this will have to come from the market, especially the export markets.” - Raghavan (Ravi) Srinivasan, Former Editor, Business Line
“We have a serious issue of absence of comprehensive data at all levels. Factories continue to under-report accidents to the government. SII continues to assist 20x workers than accidents reported to DG FASLI in Haryana. At the other end, all 9 listed automobile brands (among top 10), mandated to file BRSR to SEBI, as mandated, have filled incomplete/minimum/no answer to voluntary questions relating to accidents in the supply chain.” - Ms. VN Saroja, Head Worker Safety & ESIC Systemic Change, Safe in India Foundation |
A few CRUSHED 2024 findings
Thousands of workers continue to lose fingers in the Indian auto sector manufacturing - annually, nationally.
Since2016, SII has found and assisted 10,000+ injured workers, mainly in Haryana and Maharashtra, where SII has field teams, of which 7,000+ were in the auto sector.
Crushed injuries reported to SII, mostly on power presses, continue to increase and constitute the majority of injuries
Almost all (95%) of injured workers assisted by SII worked in the supply chain of six of the top automobile brands in Haryana and Maharashtra. SII is not yet present in locations where other top 4 brands operate (TN, Karnataka, Gujarat)
Accident Cases in Supply Chain (Automobile Brand wise) Good news: Maruti, Honda and Hero – the brands with significant supply chain presence in Haryana, where SII started its ground work and advocacy, have seen 8 quarters of falling accident trends.
While these supply chains already have 1,000+ reported injuries in 2024, the accident data since Q2 2022 shows a definite downtrend. . SII continues to seeks consistent improvement in this date for at least three years to evidence systemic change. .
Unfortunately, there is now also anecdotal evidence that one of these three brands is asking their suppliers to be ‘zero accident’ and that may be having an intended/unintended consequence of some of these suppliers not sending their injured workers to ESIC, making their situation worse.
Injured workers in Haryana and Maharashtra continue to be mostly young migrants, lowly educated, with non-permanent jobs.
Annual trend of proportion of all workers assisted by SII in vulnerability groups
Women workers are getting paid less than men for operating the same ‘dangerous machines.
Annual trend of crushed injuries among total injury cases for women workers
Power press machines have constantly been responsible for 3/4th of the total crushed injuries over the past 6 years and it has increased marginally.
Double stroke due to loose & broken pin/key/spring are the main faults in power presses leading to the injuries.
Proper/adequate safety equipment continues to be NOT provided to most of the workers operating the power press machine.
Trend of proportion status of Safety equipment being not provided Any inspection that does occur, appears to take place only after an accident or when the power press machine becomes unusable; it’s too late.
Almost all (c.80%) of injured workers worked more than 48 hours a week - the legal limit - with c.70% more than 60 hours a week were also not being paid for overtime at the legal rates, in violation of the Factories Act (1948).
Average number of working hours per week Almost half of the injured workers were aware that the machine was “malfunctioning” before the accidents, but their supervisors ignored their requests to get the machine repaired or checked.
Status: Machine malfunction, prior information & information to superiors Official accident numbers reported to DG FASLI are a fraction of the reality; Haryana state-non-fatal reported accident numbers are not even 6% of what SII reports.
Non-fatal accidents in Haryana: Reported by SII and DG FASLI
12. Some Observations from Participatory Research led and conducted by workers in Faridabad, a key auto sector hub, and its report authored by workers with support from SII and the Praxis team: Sensors in power presses are often switched off to meet the production targets
i. Operators often repair the machines themselves
ii. Power Press machines are not maintained well
iii. Only on days of safety and quality audits, a clear Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) is followed
iv. Most of the training sessions on safety are only on paper
The physical problems faced by the workers is like a catalogue from a medical journal
Loss of fingers and hands in accidents for workers working on power press machines is not unknown but the factory management’s first response is to blame the workers.
Continued exposure to sound and heat causes headaches, migraines, hearing loss and many other complications.
Long hours on the feet, cause issues like varicose veins and swollen legs.
Workers working on lathe machine are exposed to dust continuously and it causes breathlessness, nausea, and other issues such as asthma and lung problems.
Most machines have some risk or the other
There are no health check-ups on periodic basis, so many of these listed health issues are not observed.
Accessing health facilities and further process of compensation is tiresome so we just suffer.
Some of the issues around ill-kept toilets or lack of safe drinking water are not even discussed or seen as a concern.
The lunch/tea break is considered a favor to the worker, not a due right.
Recommendations/Way Ahead
SII has consistently made recommendations on two fronts, i.e., Policy Improvements and Operational implementation and the Top 5 recommendations under each are as below:
Policy
1. Boards to take responsibility for worker safety in their deeper supply chain.
2.Create a joint industry level task force with SIAM/ACMA (with any agreed participation from SII).
3.Advocate to the government to make BRSR mandatory for all auto sector brands irrespective of ownership structure, for a level playing field and better transparency.
4.Strategic international compliance and reporting annually on Indicator 8.8 of SDG8 (the only SDG indicator about worker safety).
5.Set up mechanisms to ensure that workers' voices and feedback in the entire deeper supply chain are heard.
Operational Implementation
Map the deeper supply chain to be able to take effective action.
Create, publish, and implement a Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) that ensures compliance with NGRBC, ESIC and other rules and regulations.
Include all non-permanent workers in their own factories, in the OSH Policy statement, at par with their own permanent workers.
Improve transparency and accountability of accident reporting in the supply chain, start weeding out habitual offenders and commercially reward the safest factories.
Initiate/strengthen effective ground-level actions, e.g., honest surprise worker safety audits and worker training in regional languages.
These recommendations have been consistently made in earlier reports of both the CRUSHED and SafetyNiti series, and we have continued to engage with them to get them implemented. The tables below show the progress made on the same.
Clearly, the government has a huge role to play in terms of laws, reporting systems and overall supervision. Our recommendations to Government stakeholders Ministry of Labour & Employment,
Niti Aayog etc. are noted in the report/ Chapter 8 of report.
Conclusion:
We are pleased with the progress made by the top 10 automobile brands in their OSH policies for supply chain as shown in our last report – SafetyNiti2024 – and the start of reduction in injuries in Haryana.
However, there are still thousands of families losing their dignity and livelihood in the sector. We urge the executives in the automobile brands to take more responsibility, collaborate with the government and workers to enhance professionalism and working conditions in their supply chains.
It essential for sustainable growth and improving India's labour productivity, currently ranked 133rd. Focusing on sustainable labour productivity, rather than short-term gains, is crucial. To compete globally, India must transition from low-cost labour strategies to better working conditions that drive higher value and quality production, moving beyond a short-term 'jugaad' mindset.
Stay safe and spread the word to your automobile sector contacts and please send us any feedback you have to help us do our job better at team@safeinindia.org.
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