Industrial and commuting accidents drop in Sabah
KOTA KINABALU: Interim report from the Malaysian Social Security Organization (Perkeso) shows a 12 percent industrial accident and two percent commuting accident decrease for Sabah in 2016.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said this was despite the Perkeso interim report showing a six percent increase in the number of accidents involving workers in Malaysia last year when 66,618 cases were reported compared with 62,837 cases in 2015.
Lee said Perkeso statistics revealed 34,258 cases of accidents in the workplace nationwide and interim report showed a three percent increase of 35,304 industrial accidents in 2016.
He added that more disconcertingly, the commuting accidents involving workers were 28,579 cases in 2015 and 2016 interim report reflected a 10 percent increase of 31,314 nationwide.
The Niosh chairman lauded the overall reduction of cases in Sabah as Perkeso interim report showed a 12 percent decline of 741 industrial accident cases compared to 847 in 2015.
He said the same interim report revealed that commuting accidents decreased by two percent in Sabah last year with 466 cases recorded in 2016 and 476 cases in 2015.
Lee urged for employers to recognize Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management as an integral part of business management and regard workers as the most important asset in their organizations.
He said this included ensuring that staff were at a good and healthy mental level as they would increasingly be put under tremendous stress in the workplace today.
“I’ve discussed with all my colleagues at Niosh, for our future awareness programs on occupational safety, we have to introduce how to manage psychosocial problems at the workplace. This must be part of the educational program that we need to do so we can help equip our employees, our executives with the means to manage it,” said Lee.
“Stress is unavoidable, but there is good stress and there is bad stress so we must learn how to manage and convert the bad stress into good stress,” he said.
According to Lee, the number of accidents reported to Perkeso were 59,897 in 2011; 61,552 cases in 2012; 63,557 cases in 2013 and 63,331 cases in 2014.
The Niosh chairman said the industrial accident rate per 1,000 workers had slightly increased to 2.88 last year compared with 2.81 in 2015. In 2006, the rate was 4.77 accidents per 1,000 workers.
“Management must now step back and take a hard look at their asset and actively show how much they value their employees with a responsible OSH policy to help prevent accidents,” he said when officiating at the soft launch ceremony for the 5th Borneo Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) 2017 Conference and Exhibition here yesterday.
Niosh executive director Zahrim Osman and Niosh Sabah regional manager Mohd Hussin Abd Salam were also at the ceremony, which was attended by some 150 people.
Lee said many people were not aware of the importance of OSH until an accident, injury or fatality had occurred.
“There are industries which do not want to invest in safety and health at the workplace because of the cost factor. They do not seem to realize that if accidents or fatalities occur, the costs they have to bear will be higher,” he noted.
Lee said the industries, particularly the small and medium industries, must adopt a work-safety culture and do more to prevent or minimize industrial accidents through good OSH practices.
“OSH training for employees must be seen as an investment and not an expense. In the global economy OSH issues are among the key determinants to a company’s competitiveness through productivity enhancement and efficiency.”
He said observations and evidence had shown an increase in productivity and improvement in workplace environment after a work safety culture was adopted.
“OSH must be treated as an investment and not an expense and this is in line with the maxim that ‘Safety is Good Business’,” he said.
On BOSH 2017, he said the biennial event would be held at the Hilton Hotel Kota Kinabalu on Nov 13 and 14, with the theme ‘Enhancing OSH for Business Competitiveness’.
The theme is in line with the nation’s aspiration to nurture a preventive OSH culture through the changes in both the behaviour and attitude of all parties, especially employers and workers.
First organized here in 2009, BOSH had fast become a household name within the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines East Asean Growth Area or BIMP-EAGA.
He said the biennial event, rotating in Sabah and Sarawak, had also served as the premier platform for OSH professionals in Malaysia to share and update their knowledge and skills to meet the dynamic changes in the Malaysian working environment, particularly in Borneo.