Form 24

Is your industrial setup regulation-compliant?

It is a common myth that factories need only the premises, equipment, and labor to be set up. In truth, a lot of paperwork is involved.

Every factory has an employee roster of the staff, labor, and floor crew involved. Since factory work involves risk of injury, danger to life upon an accident, and occupational hazards, the government enacted The Factories Act, 1948 to protect the health, life, and welfare of factory workers by way of regulating the provisions and work environment at factories. This act determines the roles and responsibilities of the factory managers in maintaining a safe working environment for those employed on the floor.

For instance, there was a recent incident in a Gujarat cement factory where, due to spillage of raw material, one worker lost his life while two others were injured. It is for events such as these that the Factories Act has been put in place; to ensure the wellbeing of workers at a factory.

The Factories Act, 1948 has since been subjected to certain amendments, which synchronize perfectly with the changing needs of the workers with the nature of employment and job requirement.

There are several registers, rosters, and records that the factory management needs to keep updated in order to ensure their compliance with The Factories Act, 1948. One of these forms is related to the health records of the workers – Form 24. This form is better known as the Central Health Register of workers and records the condition of health of the workers from the date of joining till the day they quit.

Let’s understand a bit more about this Act and the forms related to it through reading about:

What is The Factories Act, 1948?
What are The Forms Related to The Factories Act, 1948?
What is Form 24?

What is The Factories Act, 1948?

The Factories Act, 1948, officially came into effect on the first day of April 1949. It was enacted to create safe, sanitized, and health-conscious working conditions for the workers at a factory. Since the work environment at factories involves intense labor, harsh conditions and the risky nature of jobs, it was necessary to put compliance parameters in place to ensure the safety, wellbeing, and health preservation of the workers therein.

The Factories Act, in 11 distinct chapters, lays down the foundation and framework of the protocol required to be followed at factories. Each chapter covers a different aspect of factory work, which can be understood as follows:

Chapter 1 - This chapter outlines the interpretation, powers, approvals, licenses, and other aspects of the Act
Chapter 2 - This chapter is dedicated to outlining inspections, eligible inspectors, dedicated medical staff for the establishment
Chapter 3 - This chapter is dedicated to the health aspect of workers, delineating compliance towards, health, waste disposal, ventilation, dust, fumes, overcrowding, lighting, spittoons, latrines, etc.
Chapter 4 - This chapter covers the safety requirement of the factory area, like proper fencing around dangerous equipment, hoists, lifts, casing, self-acting machines, safety officers, and a lot more detail
Chapter 4A - This chapter covers the compliance related to hazardous processes
Chapter 5 - This chapter is dedicated to marking welfare provisions in place for the workers
Chapter 6 - This chapter clearly talks about the working hours of workers
Chapter 7 - This chapter is dedicated to the conditions of employment of young persons
Chapter 8 - This chapter lists down the annual leaves and wages

The other chapters are dedicated to special provisions, penalties, and other compliances that factory owners need to meet.

It is of utmost importance that factory owners adhere to the compliances mentioned in the Act to avoid being subject to penalties; more importantly, to give the workers a humane working environment.

The Factories Act, 1948 entails quite a long list of forms to fill out and registers to maintain, including form 24. Let’s take a look at the forms involved and what needs to be filled in.

Form 1 - This form involves an application you need to submit to extend, construct or repurpose any building for use as a factory
Form 2 - You fill out this form under the Factories Act in order to either register for a license or to get it renewed for the year
Form 4 - In case there is a change of Manager of the factory, this form needs to be filled out and submitted
Form 5 - This form is a certificate of fitness for every employee of the factory to deem them fit for factory work
Form 9 - This form is a detailed account of the workers of a factory that work near or on the machinery in motion at a factory
Form 14 - This form is a register of compensatory holidays given to factory workers
Form 15 - A register for recording the employees exempt from overtime
Forms 16, 18 - These forms keep a record of the periods of work of the staff on the factory floor for adults and children respectively
Forms 17, 19 - These are records of all the adult and child workers on the factory floor respectively
Form 20, 21 - These are the registers of leave and the Leave Book, respectively
Form 24 - This is the Central Health Register, a record of the health of factory employees
Forms 25, 26 - Records of dangerous accidents resulting in death, and not resulting in death respectively
Forms 29, 30 - Annual and half-yearly returns of factory
Form 31 - Muster roll
Form 32 - List of dangerous accidents or occurrences

What is Form 24?

Wherever a factory is concerned, the employers involved therein are required to maintain a central health register of all the workers employed at the factory. This is done basically to keep a health record in place for encouraging safe, health-conscious working practices and environment for factory workers to the greatest extent possible.

The central health register of Form 24 consists of a detailed account of the health status of each worker employed in the factory. Form 24 consists of the following particulars that must be filled in by the concerned official for every worker employed on the floor.

Particulars in Form 24

Department/Works - Under this column, the official is supposed to record the department under which a worker is employed (machinery, civil, mechanical, etc.)
Personal details of the worker, such as name, age, and sex are required to be recorded without fail
Date of employment - To get an idea of how long a worker has been engaged with the factory, the date of employment on present work needs to be recorded
Date of discharge/change of department. Record the date the employee was let go or assigned to a different department along with the reason
Nature of the job - Under this column, record the nature of work – whether hazardous, intense, etc., as identified by the Factories Act, 1948
This column in Form 24 records the substances that workers at a factory are frequently exposed to (for example, asbestos)
Medical examination particulars - Under this column, record the details of medical examination along with the dates and results of the same for each factory worker
Symptomatic records - Under this column, record all the symptoms and signs that are cause for alarm or medical consideration
Test record - Record the details of the tests that entail for each worker and what the results were
Suspension record - If the tests deem a worker unfit, record the reason and period of suspension in this column
Certificate issuance - If the certificate of fitness has been issued to the worker, or otherwise, record the details in this column
Re-certification - Under this column, record the date when the worker re-joins work upon becoming fit again
Signature column - The medical practitioner needs to put his signature in this column

Prescribed under various Schedules to Rule 120

HEALTH REGISTER

Sl. No

Department/Works

Name of worker

Sex

Age (at last Birthday)

Date of employment on present work

Date of leaving or transfer to other work with reasons for discharge or transfer

Nature of job or occupation

Raw materials,

products or by-products likely to be exposed to

Dates of medical examination and the results thereof

Signs and symptoms observed during examination

10-11

Nature of tests and results thereof	If declared unfit for work, state period of suspension with reasons in details	Whether certificate of unfitness issued to the workers	Re-certified fit to resume duty on	Signature of the Certifying surgeon with date
13	14	15	16	17

Conclusion

Form 24 can be filled up online on the website of Ease of Doing Business of India. There, all you need to do is create a profile and log in. Then, navigate to Form 24 under Factories Act, 1948 and fill the form. Upon confirming all the particulars, Form 24 can be submitted.

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Key Takeaways

The Factories Act, 1948, was enacted to preserve the health and welfare of factory workers, to ensure that they have access to proper provisions and facilities while working at factories, that their health and safety is being looked after
Through form 24, the employers maintain a ledger of the health record of all their workers, duly signed by a certified medical practitioner as stipulated by the Act. This is counted as compliance by the government
Form 24 lists down the following particulars:

- Employee/worker's personal details (name, age, sex)

- Their work details (department, exposure)

- Their symptoms, health checkup details

- Test results

- Suspension details based on medical grounds
- Date of resuming work