(REPEALED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER
NO. 392, S. 1950)
Section 1. The Bureau of Industrial Safety is hereby
created under the Administrative supervision and control of the
Department of Labor which shall have the following powers and
functions:
(a) To require every employer to furnish employment
reasonably sale for the employees engaged therein, furnish and use
safety devices and safeguards; adopt methods and processes reasonably
adequate to render such employment and the places where employment is
performed, including mines, reasonably safe; provide adequate,
first-aid facilities; provide adequate training and instructions to
employees including vehicular drivers on safe methods; do everything
reasonably necessary to protect life, health, and safety of his
employees. To require every employer, owner, or lessee of an industrial
building or place of employment now or hereafter constructed, to
construct, repair and maintain the same as to render it reasonably
safe;
(b) To make and enforce upon the advice of the
Advisory Safety Council of the Department of Labor and approval of the
Secretary of Labor, safety orders, rules and regulations, to require
the report of all industrial accidents, and to perform such other
functions as may be required by the exigencies of industrial safety;
(c) To control, regulate, and approve the
construction, demolition, alteration and use of industrial buildings,
including shops, factories, bodegas, warehouses, and other working
places, and to issue rules and regulations pertaining thereto;
(d) To inspect all industrial establishments, mines
or any place of employment, including shops, factories, warehouses and
bodegas, and machineries, engines, motors, generators, and other prime
movers, mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic engines or devices, gas
tanks, oil tanks, boilers and pressure vessels, or motor vehicles to
insure their safety, and enforce the provisions of this Act;
(e) For the inspection of machineries, engines,
motors, generators, and other prime movers, mechanical, electrical,
hydraulic engines or devices, gas tanks, oil tanks, boilers and
pressure vessels, or motor vehicles mentioned in the next preceding
paragraph; for the registration of industrial establishments; and for
other services, to fix and collect with the advice of the Advisory
Safety Council of the Department of Labor reasonable fees: Provided,
That no extra charge shall be made for the inspection of the machinery
and other apparatus connected with the boiler or driven by internal
combustion engine: Provided, further, That the amounts so collected
shall be deposited in the Philippine Treasury to the credit of the
Safety Inspection Fund to be expended for the purpose of the
enforcement of this Act, subject to the usual accounting and auditing
requirements;
(f) To study and prescribe ways and means of
preventing industrial accidents and damage to industrial properties;
(g) To recommend to the Congress the passage of laws
for the promotion of the safety and health of all workingmen;
(h) To set up a Safety Laboratory for testing and
determining the disadvantageous effect upon workers of gases, dusts,
fumes, and other injurious substances, etc.
Sec. 2. Definition of terms. — When used in this
Act, "employer" includes every person, firm, corporation, partnership,
joint stock association, agent, manager, representative, foreman, or
other person having control of any employment, place of employment or
of any employee, including vehicular driver, but the provisions of this
Act shall not embrace the employment of domestic servants. "Safe" and
"safety", as applied to any employment or place of employment, shall
mean "reasonably safe" or reasonably safety" consistent with the lawful
purpose of the use or occupancy of the place of employment, the
inherent danger of the employment, the process, operation or situation
involved and hygiene reasonably necessary for the protection of the
life, health and safety of employees.
Sec. 3. The Bureau of Industrial Safety shall be
headed by a Commissioner who shall be appointed by the President of the
Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of the
Congress of the Philippines. and shall receive an annual compensation
at the rate of seven thousand two hundred pesos.
Sec. 4. The Commissioner, or his authorized
representatives, are hereby given the following powers:
(a) To administer oaths, issue subpoenas, and take
testimony in connection with any case coming within the scope of his
official functions;
(b) To issue, subject to the approval of the
Secretary of Labor, permits that may be necessary in connection with
the proper enforcement of this Act;
(c) If after proper inspection and investigation in
his opinion any industrial building, or place of employment, or any
portion thereof, including shops, factories, warehouses, bodegas, or
any boiler, pressure vessel, machinery, engine, motor, generator and
other prime mover, mechanical, electrical and hydraulic engine or
device, gas tank, oil tank, boiler or pressure vessel, is unsafe or in
dilapidated conditions, thereby endangering human life or property, he
shall immediately notify the owner, employer, manager, agent, lessee or
any person in charge or in control thereof, of such conditions
specifying the defect or defects, and order such repairs and
improvements to be made within reasonable time as he may deem
necessary, and the owner, employer, manager, agent, lessee or any
person in charge or in control of such building, machinery or equipment
shall immediately repair and correct such defect or defects: Provided,
That, if after such notification, the owner, employer, manager, agent,
lessee or any person in charge or in control of such building,
machinery or equipment fails to repair or correct such defect or
defects within the time specified, he shall immediately order the
shutdown of such building, machinery, or equipment, if in his opinion,
the conditions thereof constitute a serious menace to the lives and
safety of any person, in, near, around or about the above-mentioned
building, machinery, or equipment: Provided, further, That, if his
opinion, order or decision is appealed to the Secretary of Labor, the
latter's decision is final.
Sec. 5. Penalties. — Any person who shall violate
any of the provisions of this Act or any of the orders, rules and
regulations promulgated hereunder, or shall hinder, refuse or in any
way prevent the Commissioner of Industrial Safety or his duly
authorized representatives from carrying out the provisions of this
Act, shall upon conviction, be punished for each offense by a fine of
not more than one thousand pesos or by imprisonment of not more than
one year, or both by fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the
Court.
Sec. 6. There shall be in the said Bureau such
safety experts and safety engineers and other officials and employees
to be appointed by the Commissioner of Industrial Safety with the
approval of the Secretary of Labor: Provided, That the present
personnel of the Safety Engineering Division of the Department of
Labor, its records, appropriations, equipment, and properties shall be
transferred to, and form the nucleus of, the Bureau: Provided, further,
That the Safety Inspection Fund of the Department of Labor, its assets
and liabilities are transferred to the new Bureau.
Sec. 7. The Secretary of Labor, with the approval
of the President is hereby authorized to transfer from his Department
and from the Bureau of Labor such divisions and sections or portions
thereof and their personnel, equipment, records, and appropriations
which in his opinion are essential to the proper functioning of the
Bureau of Industrial Safety.
Sec. 8. For the purposes of this Act, there is
hereby appropriated from the National Treasury not otherwise set aside,
in addition to the sum already appropriated for the Safety Engineering
Division, the sum of ninety-five thousand pesos or so much thereof as
may be necessary, for the salaries and wages, traveling and other
expenses or personnel, for the purchase of necessary supplied and
materials: Provided, That said amount that may be expended out of this
appropriation shall be replaced and refunded to the National Treasury
by the Commissioner from fees collected under the terms of this Act and
Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred four, as amended.
Sec. 9. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent
with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.
Section 10. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 10, 1949
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