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The federation of film unions of Mumbai, FWICE and its 22 craft unions take action to make Bollywood a safer workplace. The joint project of the IAEA and Union-to-Union is another milestone in this mutual endeavour moving from union to union cooperation to a new phase engaging in a dialogue with management of the Bollywood film city to address the most pressing health and safety concerns of talent and crew.

During a workshop held in Mumbai from 27-29 June, FWICE and its 22 craft unions as well as the India Federation of Musicians, FMI worked intensively on their plan to make Bollywood a safer workplace. This workshop is the fifth in the framework of a joint Union-to-Union, IAEA & UNI Global Union project aiming at improving the capacity of film unions in protecting the rights and improving the working conditions of Indian film workers. The film unions are pushing very hard to put health and safety on the agenda of industrial relations. Following the publication of a white paper on health & safety in 2014, the unions have started to implement a workplan in 2015 to address priority issues, notably fire & electrical safety, working hours and hygiene.

During the first 6 months of 2016, the unions and the Federation have multiplied their activities to reach out to workers and management alike. A committee of four unions undertakes regular visits to sets in order to raise awareness of workers and to listen to their concerns. The short documentary video “Living on the edge”, shot by project coordinator, Opender Chanana during the visits highlights how urgent the call for action and change is.

The committee has also invested a lot of energy to engage the management of the Bollywood studios into a dialogue process. This has finally paid off and the workshop provided for a constructive and frank exchange with Mr. Channe, Manager of the Bollywood film studios. Going forward, the management of the studios committed to work with the unions in the coming months on a list of concrete proposals to address the most pressing issues including sanitary conditions and access to first aid. This new cooperation is to progress step by step and seeks tackling the most urgent health and safety hazards one by one.   

Building on the good progress made during the first six months and the outcomes of the workshop, the unions are now putting their focus on completing a safety code, which will contain a union recommendation to all Bollywood producers on health & safety in the studios and on location in form of a guide. The document will be presented at the final seminar of this project in November this year. In parallel, the Federation and the unions are continuing their awareness raising actions on the sets and pursue the dialogue with employers.