The last thing they need is to be harassed over liability for things outside their control.When Indian industry limps back to work after the lockdown, the needs supportive policy to restore production, pay wages and taxes and service loans. We will live with the virus for some time to come and workplaces will have to figure out standard operating procedures suited to their own specific circumstances for minimising the risk of infection at the workplace. The government must institute a mechanism to grant its seal of approval for sector-specific SOPs. It would be the responsibility of any enterprise to scrupulously follow the SOP applicable to it. Its management must be held accountable for compliance, in letter and spirit. And the management’s responsibility should strictly be limited to following the relevant safety protocol. It cannot, should not be held accountable for any employee contracting Covid-19.
The enterprise’s control is limited to the workplace but employees have a life outside it and they might get the infection in their myriad interactions with family, friends, vendors, fellow worshippers, attendees at the parent-teacher meeting, fellow shoppers, whoever. The workplace cannot guarantee the worker’s safety outside the workplace. And the tendency for parts of the state machinery to extract rent from company managements on some pretext or the other must stay firmly under check.
Occupational health is part of management’s standard responsibility. Standard health insurance covers Covid-19. So should Employee State Insurance schemes. India’s economic agents have come under tremendous pressure. The last thing they need is to be harassed over liability for things outside their control. At the same time, industry must be held to rigorous account for following the safety protocol it has been asked to.
Source: indiatimes.com
