Warning Signal

A young employee dies in an accident at a railway workshop. Was it his carelessness or low-quality safety gear, as alleged by the trade union, that led to the untimely death? Had there been clear top-down communication, the tragedy could have been averted.

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Dheeraj and Sandeep both worked as welders - artisan category (see exhibit 1) at a railway workshop. Each railway division has large workshops where periodical overhauling (POH) of rolling stock— locomotives (rail engines), carriage coaches (passenger coach) and wagons (freight carrier)— is carried out. This includes all kinds of repair and replacement jobs.

Besides being peers, they were also good friends. While Sandeep had been married for five years and had two children, Dheeraj had got married only recently.

It was a Monday morning and after punching attendance, they went straight to the workshop store office to collect their safety rubber gloves and shoes. Every six months, the welders are issued new rubber gloves and shoes. However, the ones given this time around were different— the rubber of the new stock was thinner and the shoes did not appear to be as big and strong as earlier. Like many others, Dheeraj and Sandeep were disappointed by this change in quality. When asked why this had happened, the store clerk could only tell them that he did not know much and that a new supplier had bagged the contract. The welders wondered whether the new set of gloves and shoes would offer them enough protection, considering that they often had to stand on wet tracks and also do welding under wagons and coaches.

Dheeraj and Sandeep belonged to the increasing number of new-generation workers who were gradually making a considerable chunk of the workforce. Millennial generation workers had more questions than the older generation and would not be satisfied with a mere statement that the new stock will be definitely good for them.