A worker-led survey reveals poor safety standards in India's auto sector's supply chains
Hepzi Anthony
Pic Credit: Safe in India
MUMBAI, Maharashtra: Long work hours, underreported accidents, non-existent redressal mechanisms and negligence were some of the findings in a recent survey in India’s automotive sector, which in a rare first was conducted by workers themselves.
The survey called for better safety provisions and stricter monitoring of the working conditions in the supply chain of one of the country’s biggest employers.
India’s automotive sector accounts for around 7% of the country’s overall GDP and employs 32 million workers, as per industry overviews. But the sector’s supply chain has been under sharp focus in recent years for poor working conditions of workers.
The recent survey, Crushed 2024 - an annual report brought out by workers’ safety nonprofit Safe In India (SII) Foundation - revealed workers are discouraged, even barred from forming unions, accident data is poorly recorded that helps companies avoid paying compensation and even basic rights like filtered drinking water is denied.
"We need to listen to the voices of the workers because they tell us what we should know and what we don't know,” said Sandeep Sachdeva, co-founder and CEO of Safe in India, at a panel discussion where the workers who were part of the survey speak about their experiences and findings.
The survey was led by eight injured workers, guided by expert partner Praxis.
“Hearing their findings in their own words, are insightful and powerful," said Sachdeva during the panel discussion.
IGNORED INJURIES
Suchita Saini worked in a auto factory when she lost her two fingers in an accident. But poor safety for workers was routine at her workplace, she said. Workers weren’t given potable drinking water even though there was a water filter for the other office staff. And then there was discrimination in wages she suffered, she said, adding that she worked as much and as hard as the men did, but was paid less than her male colleagues, denied mandated overtime dues, holidays and even time off for elections.
The Safe In India (SII) Foundation has helped over 10,000 injured workers and managed to help them receive compensation to the tune of Rs 100 crore rupees since its inception in 2016, its officials said.
The survey found 95% of workers put in overtime beyond the legally mandated 48-hour weekly limit, which was leading to fatigue, lower productivity, higher safety risks, besides impacting their personal lives. Another SII report, SafetyNiti-2024 found that most injured workers were on contract, earning less than Rs. 15,000 per month, for mostly 12-hour shifts, six-days a week, and 67% had lost a part of their body to the accident, changing their lives forever.
Dinesh Pandey, who lost his finger and thumb and met with accidents thrice, revealed how basic safety equipment like gloves, helmets and shoes would be given to them during audits and collected back after the auditing officials left.
"No one talks to workers. The audit officials should also hear us out and our views should be part of the auditing exercise," Dinesh said during the discussion.
The survey covered 212 workers and revealed that most workers lacked training and are expected to learn on the job, including those working on power press machines where the maximum number of accidents occur in this sector, according to Safe in India’s evaluation.
Workers hired in as helpers would be asked to take over as operators particularly when work pressure was high to meet targets, Safe in India officials said, adding that most accidents took place when the pressure to meet targets was higher forcing factories to ignore safety and time restrictions for workers.
V.N. Saroja, senior advisor, SII Foundation, said most factories failed to maintain an accident register and there was rampant under-reporting of accidents.
Take for example Haryana that registered about 48 instances of non-fatal accidents in 2022. In sharp contrast, SII alone received 1199 people, which “shows the vast gap between the reality on ground and government figures," said Saroja.
Majority of the workers don't have employee government health cards, something they should have got on their joining day, campaigners said. Instead, the survey found that “e-Pehchaan” cards were made only after workers met with accidents.
SMALL CAUSES, BIG INJURIES
The Crushed-2024 survey found that most of the injuries occurred due to the power press machines, typically because of a damage in the spring, bolt or keys, the replacement for which costs less than Rs 2000.
India’s auto sector has contractualised over 70% of its workforce, according to Sachdeva, which reduces their liability to worker welfare.
The sector has poor monitoring of the working conditions in factories supplying to them, according to Safe in India’s evaluation of the problems afflicting the sector.
Workers revealed that systematic efforts were made by the factories in the supply chain to prevent them from getting united or even discouraged from coming together.
The survey notes that factory managements try to break worker solidarity.
“Nine of us used to have lunch together, so all of us were moved to different sections. If we ask questions, the contractor would change our position at work. When the heat was at its peak, we asked for a cooler, the HR said you would start feeling sleepy. If we are slightly free, we could be asked to sweep the premises. If we ask for a hike individually we are heard out, but if workers go together, they say, you want to become a union leader. We can't step out without a gate pass and we are not given one until they are willing to let us go. When we come out of the factory, we feel a sense of freedom, it seems we have come out of Tihar Jail," said Sachdeva of Safe in India (SII), quoting workers from the report.
The SII started bringing out their annual Crushed report since 2019 to highlight the plight of workers safety when they started getting inundated with over thousands of worker injuries.
MIGRANTS MOST VULNERABLE
The Crushed 2024 survey found that migrants and contractual labourers had no social security which added to their vulnerability and made their position weak on the negotiating table.
"Majority of injured workers assisted by SII until now are migrants. In Haryana, where the proportion of migration is significantly high, migrants are mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. For Maharashtra, which has relatively lower interstate migration, a significant proportion of injured workers are intra-state migrants from Nagpur, Nashik, Sholapur, etc," the report notes.
The Crushed-2024 report has recommended improved transparency and accountability of accident reporting in the supply chain, weeding out habitual offenders and commercially reward the safest factories.
Effective ground level actions like surprise worker safety audits, and worker training in regional languages and a supplier code of conduct (SCoC) be put in place to make the supply chain safer for workers.
Sachdeva says that companies must now understand that safety makes more business sense. Pointing to the example of Bangladesh, he outlined how investments in safety conditions in Bangladesh had helped them stay competitive in international markets unlike countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and even India that are losing out due to lack of safe working conditions as per global norms.
“Our country needs improvements to scale up our supply chains and compete better globally. We, in India cannot forever rely on low cost labour arbitrage, we need to take the high road for better working conditions," he said.
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