A Second-Floor Processing Unit with One Locked Exit
Arasu is administrative officer of a 60-staff insurance processing unit on the second floor of a commercial building in Tiruchirappalli. Forty desktops and six printers run off three multi-plug extension boards daisy-chained from one 15-ampere wall socket, and a burnt smell near that socket has been reported twice. The only staircase is 900 mm wide; one of the two exit doors is kept locked for security and cartons of stationery are stacked in front of it. Two fire extinguishers show a last inspection date of 2021 and no drill has been held since the unit opened in 2019. Last month a data-entry operator fainted at 3 p.m. on a day the air-conditioning failed, and drinking water comes from a cooler cleaned whenever it begins to smell. There is no first-aid box and no trained first-aider. Chairs are six years old and three have broken gas lifts; staff work nine hours at the screen with a 30-minute break. Twenty-six of the sixty employees are women, and there is one toilet for them with no rest area or locker. Two employees have filed complaints of back and wrist pain.
1. Rank the hazards using likelihood and severity, and justify why your top three come first.
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Method: score each hazard as likelihood (how often the situation recurs) multiplied by severity (how bad the outcome would be if it happened), then rank by the product, not by how visible the hazard is.
1. Electrical overload - highest. Likelihood is high: the load is continuous for nine hours, daisy-chained boards are already discolouring, and a burnt smell has been reported twice, which is a warning that the insulation is already stressed. Severity is fatal: a socket fire on the second floor with one narrow staircase can kill. Product is the maximum, so this is the first rupee spent.
2. Blocked and locked exit, uninspected extinguishers, no drill. Likelihood of a fire is lower than the electrical risk, but severity is catastrophic because escape capacity is halved and staff have never rehearsed. A hazard that turns a survivable fire into a fatal one outranks a hazard that merely injures.
3. Welfare and heat - fainting, drinking water, toilets. Likelihood is high because the fainting has already happened and the water source is unmanaged; severity is moderate but recurring, and there is a statutory exposure under welfare provisions.
4. Ergonomics - broken chairs, nine hours of screen work, wrist and back complaints. High likelihood, slow severity. Ranks fourth only because the harm accumulates over months rather than minutes, not because it is unimportant.
Reasoning to state in the answer: ranking is about consequence, not about which complaint is loudest. The fainted employee is the most visible event, but the socket is the one that can kill.
2. Which statutory and welfare obligations apply to this office, and what should be done within 24 hours, within two weeks, and within a quarter?
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Applicable obligations: the unit is an office, not a factory, so the Factories Act does not govern it; the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947 and its rules apply, covering working hours, intervals, weekly holidays, drinking water, and latrine and urinal accommodation. The building's fire-safety obligations sit with the owner under the National Building Code and local fire rules, but the occupier's duty to keep exits usable and extinguishers serviced is contractual and practical. The Employees' State Insurance scheme covers medical benefit where the wage ceiling is met; the Employees' Compensation Act covers injury. Because 60 people are employed, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 requires a crèche facility, and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 requires an Internal Committee. Confirm the current thresholds with the local inspector before relying on any single figure.
Within 24 hours: stop using the overloaded socket, call a licensed electrician, redistribute circuits with proper distribution boards, unlock the second exit and clear the cartons, place a temporary first-aid kit, arrange immediate drinking water, service the air-conditioning, and record all of it in a hazard register.
Within two weeks: refill and tag extinguishers, fit exit signage and emergency lighting, hold the first fire drill, train two first-aiders, test the water, replace the three broken chairs immediately, introduce a five-minute break every hour.
Within a quarter: electrical audit of the whole floor, full chair replacement, women's rest room and lockers, crèche arrangement, Internal Committee constituted and publicised, and a written evacuation plan with a named marshal for each zone.
3. Management says the safety spending is unnecessary because no accident has happened. Build the case for a phased, costed plan and explain how you would present it.
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Reframe the argument. 'No accident yet' is not evidence of safety; it is evidence of luck in a small sample. Present the issue as expected loss, not as compliance: twice-reported burning smell plus a single narrow staircase is a low-probability, total-loss event. The company's insurance will not cover reputational damage, a prosecution, or the loss of the processing contract if a client's due-diligence team finds an unusable exit.
Phase 1 - this month, low cost: electrical redistribution by a licensed electrician, extinguisher refills and tags, exit cleared, first-aid box, water servicing, hazard register and a drill. Indicative outlay: 60,000 rupees for electrical work, 15,000 for extinguishers and signage, 5,000 for first aid, about 20,000 for training. Roughly one lakh rupees buys the fatal risks down.
Phase 2 - next quarter: thirty chairs at about 4,500 rupees each, approximately 1.35 lakh; rest room and lockers; crèche tie-up; anti-glare film and task lighting where complaints exist.
Presentation: one page, three columns - hazard, worst credible outcome, cost to fix. Add the lost-time figure: two employees already off with back and wrist pain is a measurable productivity loss, and a fainting incident costs a day of floor output. Close with a named owner and a date for each item, and ask for Phase 1 approval only. A manager who asks for everything at once gets nothing; a manager who asks for the fatal risks first gets a decision.