The Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers, Goa has rolled out safety guidelines to be followed by all registered factories under the Factories Act, 1948 to prevent accidents during work at height. All the factories in Goa are directed to adhere to following safety guidelines for ensuring safe manufacturing operation and safe working conditions inside factory premises.
General Guidelines:
- Work at height activity to be carried out by the experienced / trained worker under the continuous supervision by the competent supervisor.
- Height Work Permit System must be incorporated and strictly followed.
- Worker assigned to work at height must have medical fitness certificate from registered medical practitioner each time he is required to work thereon.
- Risk assessment to be done before commencement of work at height and necessary safety precautions must be adopted.
- Suitable safety harness / full body harness must be provided to the worker working at height or on fragile roof and ensure that adequate arrangement is made for anchoring safety harness / full body harness.
- Harness must be connected to lifeline provided over the roofing or fixed structure to prevent the fall of worker.
- Lanyards connected to safety harness / full body harness need to be properly selected depending on the height of work.
- Fixed crawl boards and duck / roof ladders to be provided for working on fragile roofing.
- Where there is a risk of a fall from or through the structure of a roof and where there are no other means to prevent a fall, temporary edge protection (railing) and /or scaffolding must be installed.
- Perimeter or edge protection to be installed on all the exposed edges of a roof which include the perimeters of buildings, the perimeters of skylights or other fragile roof materials, and any openings in the floor or roof.
- Isolate the area below roof work wherever there is any risk of persons being struck by falling material, debris, tools and /or material from adjacent cranes or structure.
- Wherever possible safety nets must be provided below the area of work at height such as fragile roof. Safety net acts as a collective fall arrest system and they provide passive protection from falls while allowing people to work at height without restricting their movement.
- A lifeline support rope arrangement to be provided over roof sheet for anchoring of safety belts while carrying out any work on the roof/ work at height.
Background:
Taking cognizance of the accidents caused due to fall from heiqht recently and in the past, a need is felt by the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers felt the need to issue safety guidelines to be adopted by the factories while undertaking such activity not only to prevent similar or such accidents in future but to avoid liability and legal violations.
A copy of the Circular is linked below for ease of reference.
Source: Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers, Goa
