MUMBAI
:
Nifty 500 companies, employing over 10 million employees and workers, recorded an 8.5% year-on-year rise in workplace injuries in 2022-23, showed a report by proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS).
While the total number of workplace injuries increased to 10,733 in 2022-23 from 9,889 a year ago, the number of high-consequence injuries rose by a third to 907 from 679 in India’s top 500 listed companies by market capitalization, said the report titled India: Workplace Safety Report FY23.
Though the number of workplace fatalities fell by 21% to 463 deaths after a four percentage point rise in health and safety training coverage to 68%, these companies still accounted for more than one death per day.
“As this data is for the NIFTY 500 companies, which are larger and better resourced and with a more aware board of directors, this is a cause for worry,” the report said.
The report also follows Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement of a scheme for providing internships to 10 million youngsters in these top 500 companies over the next five years.
“I don’t think workplace safety is on the top agenda of boards. By focusing on these numbers, our attempt is to bring the board’s attention to this matter,” said Amit Tandon, founder of IiAS.
This is the first data comparison after India’s markets regulator mandated the top 1,000 listed firms to file the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) with their annual report starting from 2022-23 in 2021, making it difficult to attribute the rise in injuries to a particular cause.
Also, as this data is limited to direct employees and is not inclusive of the additional temporary workforce and outsourced labour, the actual number of injuries and fatalities at the workplace is likely to be even higher.
The report shows that injuries were the highest in the metals, cement and services industries. On the other hand, public-sector undertakings saw a higher average incidence of high-consequence injuries than private companies.