Section 7 in The West Bengal Factories (Safety Officers) Rules, 1978
7. Conditions of service.
(1)Where the number of Safety Officers to be appointed in a factory exceeds one, one of them shall be designated as the Chief Safety Officer and shall have a status higher than that of the others. The Chief Safety Officer shall be in overall charge of the safety functions as envisaged in rule 8, and all other Safety Officer shall work under his control.(2)The Chief Safety Officer, or the Safety Officer in the case of a factory where only one Safety Officer is required to be appointed, shall be given the same status as that of other departmental heads in the factory and he shall work directly under the control of the same executive of the factory under whom other departmental heads work. Every other Safety Officer holding a position next below other departmental heads in the factory.(3)The Chief Safety Officer or a Safety Officer may be employed either on a tenure basis or on a permanent basis. Where he is appointed on a tenure basis, the term shall not be less than three years and the period of probation shall be six months and where the appointment is on a permanent basis, the period of probation shall not be less than one year or more than two years.Any such officer appointed on a tenure basis shall ordinarily be entitled to a renewal of such periodical contract.(4)The Occupier of a factory who proposes either to terminate the services of a Safety Officer or to withhold the renewal of contract as aforesaid shall give three months notice to such officer stating reasons thereof and giving a reasonable opportunity of making representation against such notice. The final decision shall be taken by the occupier of such factory only after giving due consideration to such representation.(5)(a)The occupier of a factory may impose upon any Safety Officer any one or more of the following penalties, namely :--(i)suspension,(ii)removal or dismissal from service,(iii)reduction in rank,(iv)withholding of increment (including stoppage at any efficiency bar),(v)censure,(vi)warning :Provided that no order imposing any such penalty on a Safety Officer shall be made except after an inquiry in which he has been informed of the charges against him and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of such charges, and where it is proposed, after such enquiry, to impose on him any such penalty, until he has been given a reasonable opportunity of making representation against the penalty proposed, but only on the basis of the evidence adduced during such inquiry.(b)Any Safety Officer on whom any penalty has been imposed wider sub-rule (a) may, within thirty days of the communication of the order of imposition of the penalty to him, appeal against such order to the Chief Inspector of factories, West Bengal, whose decision thereon shall be final and binding on both the occupier of the factory and the Safety Officer.(c)On being satisfied that a Safety Officer intends to prefer an appeal under clause (b) of this sub-rule, the Chief Inspector of Factories, West Bengal, may stay the endorsement of the order to be appealed against, for such period and on such terms, if any, as he may think just and proper.(d)The Chief Inspector of Factories, West Bengal, shall by an order, after giving both the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard and for reasons to be recorded in writing, dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible. While disposing of the appeal, the Chief Inspector of Factories, West Bengal, may confirm, modify or set aside the order appealed against.(6)An appeal shall lie to the State Government against the order of the occupier of the factory under sub-rule (4), or of the Chief Inspector of Factories, West Bengal, under clause (d) of sub-rule (5), of this rule within thirty days from the date of the order:Provided that on an application of the appellant assigning satisfactory reasons, the State Government may extend the above period of thirty days for preferring the appeal by a period not exceeding sixty days in any case.(7)The scale of pay and allowances to be granted to the Safety Officers including the Chief Safety Officer and other conditions of their service shall be the same as those of other officers of corresponding status in the factory.(8)Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any contract of employment of any existing Safety Officers, the provisions of this rule shall apply.
