With a vision stating that ‘no-one should be injured or made ill through work’, British Safety Council (BSC), an expert in workplace health, safety and environmental management, has been helping organisations across the globe to take care of their workers.
At present, the organisation operates from London and Mumbai. Mike Robinson, CEO, BSC, was in Mumbai to deliver the keynote lecture at the Occupational Safety and Health India 2019 expo.
He further landed in Delhi to promote his ideas on the subject. In a conversation with The Morning Standard, Robinson talks about raising awareness of the importance of health and safety in Indian workplaces.
Tell us about the role of BSC in India. What are its plans concerning the subcontinent?
Although the BSC office in India is just two years old, our association with India has been since the 1990s. The main reasons why companies associate with BSC has been to have their health and safety systems audited as per BSC’s specifications.
These specifications have been our mainstay for many years. Now, for the last six to seven years, we have also added environment audits and many companies want to do these audits as well.
In these audits, our auditors would look into pro-active pollution control measures of the organisation. They would check factors like if the company’s operations are having an impact on the environment and how water, air and land contamination is avoided in operations.
Tell us about your audit system.
The way our audit is different from any other audit is that it is a quantified audit. So, we provide a score to a company and they know where they stand. We also have a five-star rating system and a grading system.
This audit involves interaction with people at the site, checking for documentation and it also involves site or plant rounds. All put together, the report is made.
What are the recent initiatives by BSC in India?
Specifically, for India, we do a gap audit, which is not very common in the UK or Middle East. Companies in India want to ensure that they get five-star rating at the first shot during audits.
That is why they first ask for a gap audit so that all issues where their system is weak are identified beforehand.
Then we provide consultancy or hand-holding phase. We hold workshops with them, help them strengthen their documentation, deliver training programs, help in investigation on where they can improve.
We have also identified centres where we conduct BSC level 3 or level 6 training sessions. We approve these centres after looking at their infrastructure, their polices etc. and after looking at whether they can carry out our trainings or not.
What is your view on workplace safety aspects in India?
Workplace safety in India is much better than what it used to be many years ago. Participation and awareness are much higher now.
Since the last five or six years, the media has also started giving a lot of importance to terms like ‘safety at the workplace’.
The general awareness and compliance to safety measures have improved over the years, although a lot still needs to be done.
Manufacturing companies these days go for ISO – 45001or BSC standard audits. All this is helping workplace safety because operations are assessed for safety measures, risk assessment, training programs and so on.
How should India look at occupational safety while taking examples from safety standard practices abroad?
The assessment system and standards are generally common everywhere. What is different is the commitment that the company accords.
How does the company handle its safety program? Does its senior leadership review the safety performance? Do they allocate adequate resources? All these aspects go a long way in determining what kind of safety culture is being followed. In India, more companies need to create a culture of compliance.
There needs to be checks on if contractors are working properly, is their work monitored, are they motivated, rewarded or penalised if necessary, etc.
One of the key differences is in the kind of contractors who work in India and abroad.
In India, the contractors work only for the basic essentials and safety requirements do not come as a top priority. They tend to take risks. In countries like Singapore, UK etc. the compliance levels are very high.