A fact-finding team, probing the horrific Pune chemical factory blaze last month in which 17 workers, most of them women, were killed, has found that the factory owners flagrantly violated safety and labour laws and that the authorities from the State Industrial Safety and Health Department connived with the factory owners in granting the firm a licence in the absence of all safety norms.
A massive fire erupted on June 7 on the premises of SVS Aqua Technologies in Mulshi taluk. The blaze, which sounded like a bomb explosion to 37 workers trapped inside the cramped working space, spread with such rapid intensity that 17 of them, of whom more than a dozen were women, were instantly charred to death.
The team, organised by the Trade Union Action Committee, comprised Nitish Nawsagaray, a professor at the city-based ILS Law College; Vivek Patwardhan, a senior HR Professional; advocate Vishal Jadhav; health and safety expert Prahlad Malvadkar and social researcher Roma Makati. It held detailed interviews with the survivors, the kin of the deceased and the Pune division and district authorities.
The report revealed that the factory had been in operation since 2012 but had neither obtained a licence under the Factories Act, 1948 nor even bothered to acquire one till 2020. Contrary to the line given out by the factory owners, the workers were not given any training on the safety precautions or made aware of the enormous risk of handling chemicals, it said.
“Since commencement of its operations in 2012, no officer of the Industrial Safety and Health Department had ever visited the factory nor sent any notice even once till December last year regarding norms flouted by it. It was also learnt the visit [by an authority] was the result of an unrecorded fire that had occurred in the factory earlier,” said Dr. Nawsagaray.
The officer’s report to the Industrial Safety and Health Department in December 14 last had raised objections regarding the process, safety and the layout of the factory even.
The fact-finding team revealed that after the official’s visit, the plan of the existing factory building was filed with the authorities of the Industrial Safety and Health Department in February last and “hurriedly approved” by the Industrial Additional Director of Industrial Safety and Health.
“The Director neither visited nor inspected the existing factory structure before approving the said plan which, he was legally duty bound to do. The factory plan itself reveals that it did not provide sufficient fire exits and doors. The windows shown in the plan were, in fact, sealed with grills right from the beginning. It showed many elements that never existed on the site, thus making it to be a fraudulent and fake submission,” said advocate Jadhav.
Licensed or unlicensed?
Ajit Abhyankar, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and convener, Trade Union Action Committee, said it was evident from the records that no licence was granted to the factory for 2020.
“However, while granting licence for 2021-22, the Chief Inspector Industrial Safety and Health sought to create a misleading picture as if the factory had been issued a licence for 2020. This points to complicity, connivance, conspiracy and unlawful actions by the officers of the Industrial Safety and Health Department who appear to be acting in tandem with the factory owners,” Mr. Abhyankar said, adding that while one factory owner, Nikunj Shah, had been arrested, the above government authorities have not been probed.
The report said that the fire would have been prevented had the company been issued a work stoppage order in December 2020 itself and if before issuing/re-issuing the licence, the officers visited the actual site of the factory as per the legal provisions, inspected and enforced the corrective measures as per the safety requirements.
Violation of labour laws
Ms. Makati pointed that the surviving employees informed the team that the employer (Nikunj and Keyur Shah) did not issue them any appointment letter, identity card or pay slips.
“In our interviews with employees, they revealed that the company never provided them the ESIC card nor Provident Fund [PF] numbers despite deducting PF. We also learnt that the company did not pay overtime wages at the rate prescribed by the Factories Act while not granting them any statutory paid holidays,” she stated.
The report showed that none of the employees in the factory was given any appointment letter or salary slip and that while their working hours were given as 9-5.30 p.m., several times in a month, work would begin from 7 a.m. and go on till 7 p.m.
“This overtime was unaccounted for and the employees never received compensation for it. If some employee, even for health reasons, could not attend for a few days, their services were terminated immediately. The employees also told us that they were constantly pressured and threatened with termination of services,” Ms. Makati said.
Furthermore, women employees were paid lesser than their male counterparts for the same work that included hazardous responsibilities such as packing Sodium Chlorite powder and tablets into bottles.
Mr. Patwardhan said workers were not informed about the hazardous characteristics of the raw material as well as the method of handling them. As safety equipment, they were just provided with gloves, apron and a helmet.
“On the day of the blaze, the victims were sitting in a circle packaging the material. Earlier to the incident, they had many times complained about defective packaging machines. They complained that the machines used to get heated up while emitting electric sparks. No cognizance was taken by the owners or the management of the same,” he added.
