The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has expressed his commitment towards the passage of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Bill by the end of this year.
According to him, the bill, if passed would among other things regulate workplace safety and guarantee employee’s welfare and wellbeing.
Speaking at the commemoration of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work yesterday in Accra, Mr Awuah said, the bill, currently before cabinet would soon be sent to Parliament for approval.
Themed: “Safety and Health and the Future of Work”, it brought together heads of various OHS institutions and other key stakeholders.
He noted that employees cannot be oblivious of the attendant challenges of technology, artificial intelligence and the internet and said the appropriate legal framework should be formulated to address them.
He said safety and health at the workplace were essential to productivity and realisation of work goals.
Mr Awuah urged citizens to adopt, adapt and modify the nature of their work and workplaces to be abreast of OHS.
“This requires investment, research, training, skills development and capacity building, since employees want to work in an environment where their safety can be assured,” he added.
He said safety and health of the employees should be considered as the fulcrum that determines the success or otherwise of every organisation.
He called on employers to be conscious of the emotional aspect of safety instead of the physical, saying “managers should know how to communicate decision outcomes to their workers at the workplace.”
Mr Andrew Tagoe, General Agricultural Workers’ Union of Trade Union Congress said 6,500 people die every day from occupational disease, while 1,000 suffer fatal occupational accidents.
He called on government to consider OHS and the environment as a national emergency to implement the right policies to address the situation.
BY ABEDUWAA LUCY APPIAH
