Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
"The key determinant (for good OSH) is culture at the workplace and the
management. It must start from the top, there must be that commitment by the
management not only to make announcements but also to put in guidelines and
day-to-day action that can save the lives of the workers.
<p>"We have to strengthen the safety culture. It is there but it is not as
strong as it should be," he told reporters after opening the 9th National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Conference on Occupational
Safety and Health 2006, at the Sunway Convention Centre.</p>
<p>Earlier in his opening address, Najib said there was a need to enhance efforts
to curb workplace accidents and this should be done collectively and immediately.</p>
<p>"Everyone should have the common goal of striving towards zero-accident
in every workplace. Seeking improvement in occupational safety and health must
be an ongoing task for everyone — government, employees and all relevant parties,"
he added.</p>
<p>He said statistics revealed that rapidly industrialising countries reported
high fatal accident rates at the workplace, and annually it was estimated that
fatality rates for every 100,000 workers in countries like Indonesia, Thailand
and South Korea were between 12 and 17 cases, while the figure for Malaysia
stood at 12. s.</p>
<p>Accidents at the workplace in developed countries like Japan, Canada and Australia
were, however, much lower at three fatalities per 100,000 workers.</p>
<p>"We can see a remarkable difference in the number of fatalities and occupational
accidents between developed and developing countries. Many enterprises in developed
countries are taking zero-accident as their goal.</p>
<p>"In developing countries, infrastructure construction and industrialisation
bring new situations to surface. There are more challenges to overcome, new
risks to eliminate and more hazards to be identified and dealt with," the
Deputy Prime Minister said.</p>
<p>He said it was the government’s hope that the frequency and severity of occupational
diseases and fatal accidents in the country be reduced by up to 20 per cent
by 2010.</p>
<p>He said the Social Security Organisation statistics showed that there was a
significant reduction in the total number of workplace-related accidents.</p>
<p>"In over a period of 11 years, the number of reported industrial accidents
had decreased from 121,593 cases in 1993 to 43,885 cases in 2005, denoting a
60 per cent drop.</p>
<p>"This is a highly commendable achievement and is even more if we take
into account the substantial increase in the workforce over the same period."</p>
<p>However, Najib said, there was no room for complacency as last year alone the
organisation paid out a total RM890 million in compensation for industrial accidents
and occupational diseases and this figure was expected to keep increasing.</p>
<p>He said every year, it was estimated that 220,000 people would join the nation’s
labour force and currently, there were 1.8 million registered foreign workers
in the country.</p>
<p>"Thus, we have more challenging tasks, which are, to prevent the occurrence
of accidents and injuries in the workplace, to educate workers on the importance
of workplace safety and to make them realise that safety must be priority,"
he added.</p>
<p>Najib said increased industrial growth and activities would consequently introduce
new materials, processes and technology into the country’s working environment
which were bound to give rise to more and newer safety and health hazards in
the working environment.– BERNAMA
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com