Ministry Drafts New Occupational Safety And Health Policy
A draft national occupational safety and health policy designed to prevent industrial accidents and minimise the incidence of diseases has been developed by the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to replace the existing policy which has become outmoded in many respects, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare has said.
Additionally, the ministry is receiving support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to develop legislation on occupational safety and health as a step towards a comprehensive review of the Factories,Offices and Shops Act, 1970 (Act 328) to reflect the technological advancement in factory inspection.
Taking his turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra Tuesday, Mr Mensah said the ILO was assisting the ministry to compile the occupational safety and health profile for the country.
In spite of numerous challenges, Mr Mensah said the Department of Factories Inspectorate (DFI) registered 328 new factories, inspected 1,895 work places and collected GH¢118, 241 as non-tax revenue.
Additionally, he said, the ministry did spot checks and discovered a number of irregularities including non-registration of companies at DFI and abysmal adherence to health and safety standards at workplace.
On the migration of workers onto the Single Spine and Salary Structure (SSSS), Mr Mensah said the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) had so far migrated 54 public service institutions onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) as at November 2011, representing 97.57 per cent or 458,233 of public service employees.
Some of the institutions which have so far benefitted from the migration are the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Prisons Service Ghana Immigration Service Ghana Health Service and the Local Government Service.
Mr Mensah assured of the government’s commitment to ensure that the migration exercise was carried out in a fair and transparent manner and that it was only through such fairness that equal pay for work of equal worth could be achieved.
According to him negotiations by the National Tripartite Committee to determine the 2012 national daily minimum wage had started to ensure that no worker either in the private or public sector was paid below the national minimum wage.
He announced that the ministry in collaboration with the ILO, the African Development Bank and the Ghana Statistical Service would conduct a labour market survey to set a baseline for accurate employment information.
Mr Mensah said under a pilot project, the Labour Migration Unit of the Labour Department, in collaboration with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) was able to send 20 Ghanaians to work in Italy for three months where they were engaged in harvesting fruits as part of efforts for them to obtain hand-on training on effective land usage, maximisation of production, less use of fertiliser application as well as plant and time management.
Mr Mensah said by the end of October, 2011 the Labour Department had registered 13, 607 job applicants compromising 10,401 males and 3,206 females.
Out of the number 3,072, comprising 2,489 males and 583 females, representing 22.58 per cent of those who applied for jobs, gained employment.
He said the Labour Department also facilitated the payment of a total amount of GH¢205, 372.22 to injured workmen by their employers as at October 31, 2011.
He said the ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Harvard Marine International Ghana Limited to partner National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) to establish an internationally recognised training institute to certify oil and gas training programmes.
He announced that a labour office complex was to be constructed to house the Labour Department, the Department of Factories, Inspectorate and the Fair Wages Commission to create a more congenial atmosphere for them to continue to work towards the promotion of harmonious industrial relations to enhance productivity.