News: Tata Steel deploys women in all shifts in mines

Entrepreneurship

Tata Steel deploys women in all shifts in mines

The Company has recruited ten women officers from across disciplines including mining, electrical, mechanical and mineral processing engineers, to support this pioneering effort.
Tata Steel deploys women in all shifts in mines

Tata Steel has deployed women mining engineers at its Noamundi Iron mine in all the shifts. The Company has recruited ten women officers from across disciplines including mining, electrical, mechanical and mineral processing engineers, to support this pioneering effort. 

The company has deployed women in all shifts in mines; and OMQ (Ore, Mines & Quarries) division becomes the first division in Tata Steel to deploy women in all shifts with effect from September 1, 2019. Earlier, the company started two shifts at its Jamshedpur plant shopfloor for women employees from April 1, 2019. A total of 52 female employees were deployed at its Coke Plant and Electrical Repair Shopfloor in Shifts A and B between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm through the week.

In line with the Company’s target of having 20% women officers in the workforce by 2025 and the recent modifications in the law, the human resource management division and the raw material division have undertaken an initiative called “Women @ Mines”. This initiative will focus on four aspects namely communication, amenities, recruitment of women: officers and non-officers, and tejaswini 2.0. This follows the central government’s decision (vide Gazette notification dated January 29, 2019) to exempt the women employment in any mine above ground and in any mine below ground from the provisions of Section 46 of the Mines Act, 1952.

Arun Misra, Vice President, Raw Materials, Tata Steel, said: “We are extremely happy to deploy women in mines. We respect the uniqueness of individuals to create a diverse and inclusive workforce by having access to a wider talent pool. We are enhancing our facilities to recruit more women in all sections of our mines.”

“There is a clear business case for employing women in mines as it leads to the generation of new innovative ideas and perspectives,” added Misra.

All the norms stipulated by Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) are being adhered to ensure effective deployment of women at the mines. Written consent from each women employee has been obtained prior to the deployment. Adequate facilities and safeguards regarding occupational safety, security, and health of the female employees have been considered and arranged for.

Presently, the deployment is for officers, non-officers and contract employee categories. In the first phase, the mining engineers and plant engineers have been deployed in few key sections of Noamundi mine and this will be progressively extended to all areas going forward.

Tata Steel is committed to diversity and inclusion and will continue to invest in creating new support structures, systems and processes to enable this. The entire ecosystem is being developed for making life comfortable for women working in mines. Deployment of women security personnel in the same shift has also been planned. OMQ division will soon launch ‘Tejaswini 2.0’ - an initiative to provide technical training to unskilled women workers and enable them to work in core jobs at mines.

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Topics: Entrepreneurship, #WomenofChange

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