Health and safety audits provide vital insights into the most effective ways of improving an organisation’s safety performance. However, to get the most from the audit process, it is vital a company is open about its safety performance and systems, and happy to hear ideas for improvement, explains Suresh Tanwar, senior head of audit and consultancy at British Safety Council India LLP.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 13 May 2025
In India, there are regular reports of young children being killed or injured while living in makeshift houses on construction sites where their parents work long hours as labourers. However, construction companies, schools and NGOs are increasingly working together to provide on-site childcare centres and schools so children can both be kept safe from the dangers and receive an education.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 13 May 2025
With rising temperatures threatening both productivity and worker safety in many sectors of Indian industry, the central government’s Ministry of Labour and Employment has issued an urgent advisory note instructing all States and Union Territories (UTs) to take measures to protect workers and labourers in a range of sectors from the health impacts of extreme heat.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 13 May 2025
Employers in India are failing to provide sufficient and separate toilet facilities for female workers, leaving women struggling to find safe sanitation and being discouraged from entering the world of work.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 07 March 2023
Although India’s gig workers have long campaigned for better employment conditions and social security benefits, commentators say progress in wgaining them is painfully slow.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 08 February 2023
ASHA workers are universally praised for their vital work in improving the health of impoverished villagers, but have long argued that the government continues to deny them better wages, improved working conditions and basic social security benefits.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 08 February 2023
Many of India’s domestic workers face exploitation, poor working conditions and low wages, and campaigners say the one of the main reasons is the central government’s failure to introduce nationally applicable laws to protect them.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 07 March 2023
With fire safety duties becoming ever more stringent following the Grenfell tragedy, it is crucial that ‘Responsible Persons’ (and other relevant safety roles) only specify and hire appropriate fire safety organisations who have been independently assessed and certificated to evidence their competence.
By Dr Justin Maltby-Smith, BAFE Fire Safety Register on 06 August 2023
The golden thread topic has no doubt featured many times before. With it being summer 2023, the registration of higher-risk buildings is in full swing, and the policy on the golden thread of information is being finalised with secondary legislation enshrining it expected in various waves soon.
By Sofie Hooper, Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management on 06 August 2023
With research revealing poor understanding among many businesses of their duty to have arrangements in place to safely evacuate mobility-impaired people, it’s time for the government to educate building owners about their obligations and mandate the provision of evacuation equipment, to ensure a safe evacuation for everyone.
By Gerard Wallace, Evac+Chair International on 01 August 2023
Ongoing failures to prevent exposure to asbestos suggest much more needs to be done to build the skills, knowledge and competence of those with day-to-day responsibility for preventing exposure in UK buildings.
By Colette Willoughby, Asbestos Compliance Limited & National Organisation of Asbestos Consultants (NORAC) on 01 April 2023
As workplaces re-open, many Indian businesses are adopting a hybrid model of office and home working, and surveys suggest employees feel this will improve their work-life balance and wellbeing.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 05 November 2021
The manual cleaning of human waste from sewers and septic tanks has long been banned in India due to the risk to life, but campaigners say scores of workers are still dying in sewers every year due to government inaction.
By Orchie Bandyopadhyay on 05 November 2021
