Dear Abhay,
I always find something intersting in your posts which makes me happy too.
You may check with the statutes. No where it states that safety of the industry is vested with Safety Officer. You have to deal with the top brass for absolute responsibility for safety of his industry is vested only with him. He runs the industry. All others including Safety Officer are under his direction. Because of this now one of the Directors is made answerable for complying with statutory requirements on safety, health and welfare in India. Even appointing a Manager as in the past to escape responsibilty is not possible.
Arresting a Security Officer or safety Officer is only mokery. It may be to pacify the people aroud. In a mass psychology just for peace police have to play many games for chances of riot at accident scenes are quite common. After a few days everything goes normal.
It is better we don’t discuss much about the caliber of a safety officer in India as of now. If he is good at entertaining the Inspector he will be good. With that there will not be any adverse remarks and mangement will also be happy with it.
How often the Inspector really inspects a factory, what he inspects etc. is known to you too. If statutes are enforecd with the spirit of making it; I am sure there will not be any industrial accident at all in India.
Even proper safety education is not provided here. The Post diploma in industrial safety is not the end. You can not make a safety officer with that curriculum. What they learn is not sufficient to shape a competent safety officer. You are right in that respect. Most safety officers require perfect training if they are to do justice to their calling.
Again HRM can not escape responsibility. They have absolute responsibility for choosing the right candidate for the post of S.Officer and for that matter for every post.
I am attaching an incomplete power point presentation with a request to all in the field to complete the presentation. Let us see where we stand. It may take about 25 slides to complete it.
Regards,
Kesava Pillai