Workers in automotive industry face safety risk, as injuries rise 35 per cent YoY: Safe in India Foundation Report

Indian Express

19-07-2025

Workers in the automotive industry continue to face safety risk, with a 35 per cent year-on-year increase in injured workers to 1,256 in 2024 as against 926 in 2023, a report released by Safe in India (SII) Foundation on Friday showed. Out of these, 875 workers reported crush injury (loss of their fingers) in 2024, a 15 per cent year-on-year rise from 759 crush injuries seen by workers assisted by the SII in 2023.
More than 95 per cent of the injured workers assisted by it worked in 6 out of the top 10 automotive brands, it said. Supervisors often ignored workers' warning of malfunctioning machines, with 41 per cent injured workers aware of malfunctioning of the machines; of which 91 per cent reported to have informed the supervisor and were ignored, the report said.
The Foundation's report, titled Crushed 2025, is the 7th annual report on worker safety in the Indian automotive manufacturing sector.
Crush injuries tracked by the SII showed an increase and in two-thirds of these crush injuries on machines like power press, workers continue to lose two fingers on an average, the report said. More than two-thirds of power press defects that cause these grave injuries stem from loose or broken pins, keys, or springs, while one-quarter are due to damaged paddles, frequently resulting in double stroke injuries, the report said. Factories, predominantly, do not seem to have the practice of inspecting the machinery, daily before operations begin as required, it said. 'In 70 per cent of the cases, inspection of machinery is done only when not working or an impending external audit,' the report said.
The higher the vulnerability of the worker in terms of lower levels of education, the worse is the rate of injuries suffered by the worker, it said.
For instance, in Haryana, 59 per cent of the injured workers were non-permanent in 2024, while 86 per cent were inter-state migrants, with 77 per cent of the workers educated lower than class tenth. In Maharashtra, 77 per cent of the injured workers are non-permanent, while 80 per cent of the injured workers were inter-state migrants, with 74 per cent having education less than class tenth.
While the report noted the changes proposed in the new Labour Codes, it said some of the rules, especially regarding working hours, have been changed in most states in line with the Codes, resulting in longer working hours without commensurate payments for overtime that often breaches weekly work hour limit.
For instance, the legal working hours have been increased from 8 hours to 12 hours per day in many states but the weekly limit of 48 hours has not been increased. However, 'the reality is that 76 per cent injured workers stated that they work over 60 hours a week', the report said.
Over 8,500 injured workers have come to SII, 78 per cent from auto-component factories, mostly on illegally operated power presses, Sandeep Sachdeva Co-Founder & CEO, Safe in India Foundation said. 'Women remain disproportionately at risk. Many employers falsify records and deny even basic ESIC (Employees' State Insurance Corporation) entitlements,' he said.
As recommendations for improving workers' safety, Sachdeva said company boards should be made accountable for safety. 'Publish clear MIS on supply chain accidents; stop business with repeat offenders. Professionalise MSME suppliers, starting with Tiers 1 and 2, enforce ESIC and OSH (Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code) compliance, align with global best practices,' he said. A joint task force can be created with the government and industry-wide skills and safety training programmes, especially on high-risk machines, should be launched, backed by honest audits.
Aanchal Magazine is Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and reports on the macro economy and fiscal policy, with a special focus on economic science, labour trends, taxation and revenue metrics. With over 13 years of newsroom experience, she has also reported in detail on macroeconomic data such as trends and policy actions related to inflation, GDP growth and fiscal arithmetic. Interested in the history of her homeland, Kashmir, she likes to read about its culture and tradition in her spare time, along with trying to map the journeys of displacement from there.
... Read More