Companies indifferent to workers’ safety
5 February 2010
Only a few companies in the country have systems in place to address occupational health hazards, revealed the labour ministry during a week-long training on occupational health and safety management (OHS) in Phuentsholing.
Labour Officer Phuntsho Wangdi said occupational health and safety is underlined in the Labour and Employment Act 2007 but it has still not been effectively implemented because the rules and regulations governing it are still in the draft form. “The act needs to be worked on further so that it becomes clearer and specific,” he said.
The labour act states that an employer shall provide and maintain a working environment for employees that is safe and without risks to health.
Phuntsho Wangdi said there is a need to educate people in order to start implementing the laws that govern occupational health, and efforts should be made by both the employers and the government.
He said one of the main challenges of enforcing occupational health and safety rules is convincing employers that safety measures would benefit both employers and employees.
“Employers are reluctant to provide safety gears to employees as there are cost implications,” said Phuntsho. “Employers don’t understand that, if they don’t take safety measures now, the compensations they will have to pay when mishaps occur could cost them a lot more than what they invest in safety gears.”
Occupational health hazards are categorized as physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psycho-social hazards. Chemical hazards are those caused by chemical compounds, noxious gases, dusts, pesticides and metals in industries that deal with chemicals.
Physical hazards are those caused by heat, humidity, light, noise, vibrations, pressure and harmful radiations. Biological hazards are a result of exposure to various biological agents such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and moulds.
Ergonomic hazards are those caused by inappropriate working conditions. In order to avoid ergonomic hazards, the workstation should be fitted to the worker, rather than the worker fitting the workstation.
Mental stress, interpersonal relations with superiors at work, alcohol and drug abuse, workplace violence and sexual harassment lead to psycho-social hazards.
Phuntsho Wangdi said the ministry had received five to six cases of occupational health hazards in 2008 and only a few sporadic cases since then. “There could be many such cases that go unreported,” he said, adding that “most of the cases reported were accidents related to construction.”
According to OHS survey conducted by the labour ministry in 2007, safety and health standards at workplaces were very low. Only less than 40 percent of the companies had an acceptable level of machine guarding standards, and half of them had safe electrical wiring for the machines. More than 60 percent of the companies recruited machine operators who were not properly trained.
Although it was observed that most of the chemical companies had kept the chemicals labeled and safe, only 20 percent had information sheets explaining safe use of the chemicals. Overall, only 55 percent of the companies had acceptable standards of chemical safety.
By Pushkar Chhetri
Loading ...
Comments
2 Responses to “Companies indifferent to workers’ safety”
Leave your comment
Loading ...Zakar for Thursday September 02 2010
th Day of the th Month - Year
Auspicious for:
Inauspicious for:
Recently Updated
- Nganglam needs the same favours
- Yangphel open archery tournament in the quarters
- Meet the wicked lady of Bhutanese films
- From dung to clean energy
- Contractors appeal to PM to solve stone shortage crisis
- Villagers cry foul of farm road alignment
- Tor Jap – hurling ritual cakes
- PTC teachers need professional incentives
- Tudors win easy over Aspens
- 136 power tillers distributed
Popular Articles
- Building and selling skills (535)
- Coming of the new God (270)
- Bhutan’s GDP growth up (80)
- Archery range still threatens lives (55)
- In peace, the King sleeps (40)
- First Bhutanese to run world-class marathon (378)
- Bhutan runs NY marathon (333)
- Burning a mountain with a single thought (203)
- Buddhas and Bars (159)
- Of those 6 months in Phuenthsoling (51)
i think all the labour should provide a safety, like boots, raincoat, yellow hat and mask , and some people who have a baby should provide a babysitter. we should concern about all the people no matter its poor or rich. we can see everyday those labour working along the road, but nobody care, nobody cares about them . only they care about is how fast they can finished a wrok and rean money.
i dont know how much they get paied? our contry is small and as some people say happniess county, and buddha contry, so think baout all this people who are not care about government . i think they should get more saftey and health care.
well, i think inculating safety culture in Bhutan is one of the most challenging task for the Department of Labour Officals. we can see whether it is on the road, at home, office and entertainment places, the safety standard is very poor and there is no Bhutanese who is taking care in terms of OHS. now, with the enactment of the Labour and Employment Act, 2007 and within no time get the OHS rules and regulation through and implement the law efficiently.
why? DoL has to implement effectively, because there are lots of tourism going fly in to our country and inorder to have some safety standard in place and most importantly for the safety of the workers.
so, lets join our hand and say SAFETY FIRST.