Injury Scheme for workers

The PM's announcement of along-term and sustainable 'Employment Injury Scheme' to ensure better benefits and support for workers is a very welcome and farsighted move by the government.  We are all too familiar about the woeful conditions of the workers in certain sectors, particularly the industrial sector workers, who work under extreme conditions without any concomitant  benefits in case of injury, and even more so in case of permanent disability. The policy will be a great incentive, we are sure, for the workers.

We understand that the policy is still at the very nascent stage of formulation, and details are still being worked out; however, a few suggestions are in order. While we are sure that the government will be a partner in the scheme, the private sector employers must also be encouraged to see the benefits of such an arrangement and readily implement the scheme once that is formulated.  Also, given the fact that in general, industrial work is inherently hazardous job, there is a case for bringing under the ambit of the proposed scheme also the informal sector that employs a large number of workers, in the most hazardous conditions, but are deprived from the benefits that the formal sector workers enjoy.

Injury Scheme we feel underwrites the very issue of workers safety. And in this regard the RMG sector has come under a structured oversight mechanism, although that was compelled by the Rana Plaza killings; similar arrangement needs to be put in place for other sectors, both formal and informal, to reduce the chances of injury and disability.