UNITES Professionals

sss

UNITES Mourns fire accident victims at Carlton tower in Bengaluru

The incident of people injured in a major fire that broke out on Tuesday at the Carlton Towers, which houses many commercial offices and establishments, on Old Airport Road at Domlur here, highlights the problem that we have been telling for the last four years about OHS (Occupational Health & Safety) to be taken seriously by builders/ companies and all the employees of the company.

We at UNITES mourn at this unfortunate incident. Our condolence are extended to family members of employees died in fire accident and others who have had injuries in the accident and their family.We want Carlton Tower owners & Companies to counsel its employee on safety and to overcome this trauma.

UNITES Professionals is Union for IT & ITES employees in India. UNITES strives to create a distinct and cogent link between employers & employees at all levels. Our head office is located at Bangalore.

In the past we have with the help of ILO (International Labour Organisation) have conducted Free OHS workshop. Kindly let us know how we can work together on the same. Please keep visiting the UNITES website for regular updates on labour situation in IT/ITES industry. Our website at www.unitespro.org .

Regards
Karthik Shekhar
General Secretary



The catastrophe at Carlton Towers has given a wake up call to IT and ITES employees who feel its time companies did more to safeguard their staff against accidental fires at their workplaces. Unites Professionals, a union of these employees, has written to NASSCOM to come out with guidelines to make it mandatory for companies to train at least 40 percent of their staff in occupational health and saftey(OHS). Karthik Shekar, general secretary. UNITES, says as tech companies are usually located in high rise buildings, it is essential for the staff to know more about OHS because accidents can happen. We have urged Nasscom to come up with mandatory guidelines, because only this will force companies to train their employees in how to deal with emergencies like fire" he explains. Contending that it is difficult to understand how nine people can die during an accidental fire in a city like Bengaluru which is on the global map. "All companies abroad have sessions on OHS for their employees, so they know what to do in times of emergencies." he points out. According to him half a day long session on OHS will suffice because the trained employees can in turn instruct the remaining staff when the situation calls for it. The union has offered to organise free OHS sessions for employees in different companies if NASSCOM gives the go ahead.

sss