Govt to establish occupational health safety body

Officials of the Ministry touring one of the factories.

AN Occupational health and safety authority is to be established by the government to appropriately deal with occupational safety issues in the country.

It would be mandated to develop appropriate training mechanisms for occupational health and safety, as a way of eliminating volatile industrial accidents.

The authority would also be made to ensure a strict deployment of safety personnel in manufacturing industries and factories across the country.

The Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, made this known to the Daily Graphic when he toured the premises of Special Steel Limited, manufacturers of iron rods and steel rods in Tema.

He said that following the fact that the factories Inspectorate and the Labour Department had been marginalised in the past, the two entities had deteriorated to the extent where majority of its workforce had resigned for better job opportunities elsewhere.

“And as parts of measures to retool the department in a bid to make it attractive, a feasibility studies was being conducted for the construction of an office complex to house the two departments and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission”, Mr Sekyere disclosed.

Similarly, a fleet of vehicles, the Minister said, were ready for onward delivery to the Factories Inspectorate unit in the ensuing days as promised in the government’s 2012 supplementary budget as part of retooling measures.

The Deputy Minister was accompanied by the acting Chief Labour Officer, Ms Elizabeth Hagan, the acting Chief Factory Inspector, Mr Adjei Boye, Mr Fred Mensah, Greater Accra Regional Director of Factories and Mr Stephen Ankama Lomotey, Tema Metropolitan Factories Inspector.

The visit follows an industrial accident at the company’s melting plant on January 27 and 29.

According to Mr Sekyere, the recurrence of industrial accidents,  with the lost of lives were as a result of the company managers’ inability to deploy  safety officers in their operations.

The team also visited the premises of COB- A- Industries, producers of standard water.

At Special Steel, the Deputy Minister who was not impressed by the house-keeping and safety measures of the company chided officials for  putting profit ahead of workers safety.

He also lamented that out of the company’s 600 employee, only 52 were permanent staff, with the rest being casual labourers recruited through a third party arrangement by private employment agencies that do not have licence from the labour department to carry out such activities.

It also came to light that the workers decision to join a trade union were persistently frustrated by the recruitment agency that supplied the company with labour.

That, Mr Sekyere said, was in violation of trades union rights of workers and total disregard for the country’s labour regulations.

Similar conditions were observed at COB- A- Industries, where management admitted the non-existence of a workers union, thereby undermining the bargaining power of employees.

He therefore directed the labour department and the factories inspectorate division of the ministry to investigate and present a technical report to the government for the necessary action to be taken.

He in a like manner charged company officials to laise with the Factories Inspectorate officials to ensure  the training and attachment of a safety officer to monitor its operations.

The Deputy Managing Director of Special Steel, Mr Rajan Vinod Kumar, told the delegation that the company was in talks  with the General Metal Manufacturing Workers Union (GEMM) to ensure workers had a bargaining power.

Mr Kumar however debunked suggestions that the company’s management was frustrating the workers move in that regard, saying, “we do not have a direct contract with them, but with the party representative that recruits them for our operations”.

He however gave the assurance that management would await recommendations from the labour department and the factories inspectorate so as to inform its decision.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Fri March 9, 2012