World Occupational Health And Safety Day: Expert Bemoans Ghana’s Weak Laws

The World Occupational Health and Safety day is celebrated on the 28th day of April each year with focus on protecting the lives of workerseverywhere as well as promoting the prevention of occupational accidents anddiseases. This year’s celebration is under the theme: ‘’Work Place Stress; acollective challenge’’.

As the worldmarks this day, Occupational Health and Safety Consultant , Richard Boadi Soadwahas bemoaned the high rate at which workers in the country are losing theirlives as a result of lack of proper occupational safety management.

According to him, Ghana’s economy is growing steadily, with growth been driven by Agriculture, Construction, Mining, Education, Transport and Artisanal Industry andthat with this growth, hazards emanating from work in all these sectors of the economyhave increased and varied .

However, Mr. Soadwa believes the existing laws andregulations in the country on Occupational Health and Safety are notcomprehensive enough to cover the entire population, explaining that it is weak and does not placethe workers first, emphasizing that only the large industries such as the mining and oil, to some extend, prioritizeworkers safety.

His observation is contained in a statement issued by him on this year's ‘’World Occupational Health and Safety day" in which he has also charged industries,both small and large to hire Health and safety officers at their various workplaces.

According tothe chief executive officer of GRIS Consult, the international labourorganization (ILO) estimates that some 2.3 million people around the world circumto worker related accidents or diseases every year and that it corresponds toover 6000 death every single day.

Below is the Full Statement:
Occupational Health and Safety and its RelatedChallenges in the Ghanaian Economy, Using the Construction Industry as a touchstone.

In `April28, the world is observing annual World Day for Occupational Health and Safety.On this day, the focus is on ‘Workplace Stress: a collective challenge.” It isaimed at protecting the life and health of workers everywhere. This day iscelebrated to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseasesglobally. It is an awareness-creation campaign aimed at focusing internationalconsideration on emerging tendencies of occupational health and safety and onthe degree of work-related disease, injuries, and fatalities globally.

It is evident that Occupational health and safety has a correlation witheconomic activities that go on everyday in Ghana. As the economic activitiesgrow and expand, occupational injuries and diseases are also more likely to beprevalent among workers in different sectors of the economy such asagriculture, construction, education, health, manufacturing, mining, transport,and the artisanal industry (those in mechanic shops, carpentry, tailoring,et,).

This may result in high occupational health and safety needs, which mightbe difficult to meet by countries such as Ghana that are prioritizing economicexpansion but with little emphasis on occupational health and safety, as wellas Environmental Management. As the world commemorates this day, and not restricting me to the themeof the commemoration, I present this article, trying to describe the generalstate of occupational health and safety in Ghana and find out the challenges inproviding occupational health and Safety services with more emphasis on theConstruction industry under the expansion of the Ghanaian economy.

Ghana's economy is growing steadily, with growth being driven byagriculture, construction, mining, transport, education, health manufacturingand the artisanal industry. With this growth, hazards emanating from work in allsectors of the economy have increased and varied. Workers in Ghana are exposedto these hazards and suffer from illnesses and injuries and yet the provisionof adequate occupational health services is always limited.

Services are scantyand limited to a few enterprises that can afford it. Existing laws andregulations in the country are not comprehensive enough to cover the entirepopulation. Implementation of rules and regulation is weak and does not placethe workers first, especially those in the informal sector. It is also evidentthat in Ghana, it is only the large industries such as the mining and oil thatto some extent, prioritize workers safety.

There is little information about work-related diseases and injuries inGhana on which to base occupational health and safety outcomes. Ghana lackssystems to collect such data regularly and actively and has been relying on“passive notification,” either to compensation or insurance authorities or thelabour inspectorate whenever there is a workplace accident. There is insufficient political will toaddress the problem.

As a country we still do not have a comprehensive nationalpolicy and appropriate legal provisions on Occupational Health and Safety. Thenecessary infrastructures required for effective implementation of programmesare not available. There is little evidence of both government and privatesector investment to reduce risk to the Ghanaian workforce. For example, wecontinue to rely on outmoded statutes like the Factories, Offices and Shops Act1970, Act 328 even though this law is beleaguered with several weaknesses andnot in line with modern developments.

To make matters worse, there are nosystems for enforcement and these laws are only periodically enforced, andtherefore not serving as persuasive incentive for employers to control risk forinjury and illness on the job. The construction industry is believed to employ over 9% of the world’sentire workforce and contributes to more than a 10th of the global GDP. Itcurrently shows increasing trends, not only in terms of volumes of work done,but also in terms of the complexity of construction projects.

Today many citiesin Ghana have been transformed from what they used to be in the early 1990s dueto ongoing improvements to road infrastructure, power lines, telecommunicationsystems and multi-storey buildings etc. It is not therefore uncommon to witnessa mushrooming of on-going construction work in both rural and urban setups. Arecently released study by the Global Construction Perspective and OxfordEconomics (Global Construction 2025) forecasts an increase of 70% in the volumeof outputs from the industry by 2025.

Another global survey by KPMGInternational, which involved face-to-face interviews with 165 executives fromconstruction industries, similarly shows an increase in revenue of up to 5% in2012/13, as reported by more than half of the respondents. Major drivers arethe increased demand for better infrastructure, realized economic growth,urbanization, and population growth.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), it isestimated that some 2.3 million people around the world succumb to work-relatedaccidents or diseases every year; this corresponds to over 6000 deaths everysingle day. Worldwide, there are around 400 million occupational accidents and200 million victims of work-related illnesses annually. The ILO updates theseestimates at intervals, and the updates indicate an increase of accidents andill health. The construction industry has a disproportionately high rate ofrecorded accidents.

Apart from being a prominent source of pollution,construction work is characterized by the entire spectrum of health and safetyhazards, namely physical, mechanical, ergonomic, biological, and chemicalhazards. Due to the complexity of the industry and the hazards it contains,occupational health and safety in construction work should start at thedesigning table and continue throughout the construction phases until thehealth and safety of end users is ensured.

Internationally, ILO ConventionNumber 167 (Safety and Health in Construction Convention) and itsRecommendation Number 175, provide guidelines and standards for safety andhealth in different stages and different types of construction work, includingdemolition work as described under Article 24. In accordance with this, manycountries in the world have enacted laws and regulations to guide health andsafety during construction work.

Despite international and national efforts to ensure health and safetyin the construction industry, it remains dangerous, and construction workershave continued to succumb to accidents both major and minor arising from theirwork. The major causes of accidents in this sector include, but are not limitedto, falls from height, work with defective harnesses and scaffolds,electrocutions, and transport related accidents.

Recent incidents involving the collapse of buildings in Nii-Boi Town(Daily Graphic18/03/15) and Cantonment ((Daily Graphic 26/07/15), the June 3Accra disaster that recorded about 160 deaths, all in Accra and a similarrecent episode in Apatrapa and Kropo, as well as the Prempeh college disasterall in Kumasi (Daily Graphic 23/06/15, 9/10/2015 respectively) are but a fewexamples of the many places facing similar accidents arising from constructionwork and lack of safety practices. It is important to note that most of theseincidents occur not only in Ghana but also in many developing countries such asthe one that occurred at the Church of All Nations (The synagogue) in Nigeria,where law enforcement and technological advancement still need improvement.

This article, the first in the series, and the assigned theme comes atan opportune time, when the memories of the construction industry tragedies ofour time are still fresh and are called upon to discuss and share experiencesof the best practices and approaches to health and safety within theconstruction and other sectors of the Ghanaian economy. This may in the longrun have a positive impact and work towards a sustainable reduction of workplace accidents.

Specifically in Ghana, reminiscent to the sheer dearth of reliablefacts, figures and statistics, accidents are not always properly recorded and figuresmight not necessarily be available, yet there is an ample evidence to show thatGhana has had its fair share of the work-related accidents. In view of this, itwould be very prudent if Ghana develops a national culture of occupationalhealth and safety.

It is crystal clear that construction projects donot operate independently of the society in which they are located, and nomatter how determined the project managers may be to run a safe and healthysite, it is almost impossible for them to do this if the prevailing nationalculture is that ‘life is cheap’ and ‘I cannot afford safety measures’. ANational Culture which upholds the sanctity of human life and safety is thestarting point. But then the inability of individuals to make ends meet inbasic necessities of life has invariably challenged us to under value life,health and safety.

Developing such Occupational Health andSafety culture therefore has to start at senior government levels and bedeliberately diffused throughout the society, throughout the government,employers and employees, artisans, trade associations, schools, churches,mosques, organizations and also homes. Any death, fatal or minor accident that occurs in the workplace always takespeople by surprise. It is a life story that is cut short, and each lossrepresents the loss of dreams for the future.

It is a story about families,friends, co-workers who feel the loss and the pain of a loved one, and theykeep asking questions that bother on laxity and lack of policy implementation.Unfortunately the bulk of us forgets it and goes on; sometimes much is notheard of the investigations and aftermath. These forgetful phenomena arerepeated over and over, signifying the low importance attached to safety,health and life than it should.

Now that OccupationalHealth and Safety Bill is laid in the Ghanaian Parliament, it is a greatopportunity to analyse the bill properly from the perspective of theOccupational Health and Safety profession. This will guide the debate and inputinto all the gaps that may exist in the bill. There should be a debate ofissues, which I hope my series of articles will contribute to.Thus an occupational health and safety services strategy, backed bylegislations and provided with the necessary resources is a necessity in Ghana.

The existing legal provisions require major clarifications and amendments tomeet international principles and standards. Occupational Health Safety regulations andlegislations need re-engineering, revision, and strengthening to cover all workingmasses in Ghana. Research and Capacity building should be improved to enableenforcement.

Finally, the facilities and resources should be made available forOccupational Health and Safety practices to match with the growing economy. It is my passionate hope that Parliament would take a critical look andtreat the bill with all urgency. Ghanaians are dying by the day due to lack ofa Legal, Policy, Regulatory and Programme Framework to assure OccupationalHealth and Safety practices at all levels of our National Life.

Signed
Richard Boadi Soadwa (Brother)
(MSc. Social Policy); (Occupational Health & Safety Consultant )Chief Executive Officer - GRIS CONSULT HR, EOHS Manager &Waste Management Consultant – Presank Limited