OSH-C workshop for small, medium enterprises in S’wak

SIBU: A workshop on ‘Occupational Safety and Health Coordinator’ ( OSH- C) was held recently for small and medium enterprises ( SMEs) across the state to enhance the awareness among employers and workers of occupational safety and health (OSH) at their workplace.

The two- day workshop 1 on ‘ Introduction to OSH’ ( Series 1 and 2) was held in Kuching, and gathered 58 participants representing employers and employees from sectors such as mining, food processing, service, printing, logistics and transportation.

Department of Occupational Safety and Hea lth ( DOSH) Sarawak director Mohd Hatta Zakaria officiated at the opening of the workshop, where its DOSH SMEs Section ( Non- Factory) Putrajaya director Ahmad Fauzi Awang and DOSH Sarawak deputy director (operations) Mut Sagai were also present.

According to a media statement by the department, among the objectives of the department was to give exposure and guidance to the management or employers of SMEs towards developing OSH programmes at their workplace.

“Additionally, it aims to give early explanation on the purpose, roles, responsibilities and the importance of appointing OSH coordinator at SME workplaces, and to produce and train more of such coordinators,” DOSH stated.

The department had undertaken various initiatives towards achieving the objectives, among them to assist SMEs in giving guidance that would suit the category of factory.

“To establish communication between DOSH and factories and assist in giving information on implementation of OSH and encourage OSH awareness campaign among employers and workers through cooperation between related agencies and employers’ associations.”

It i s hoped t h rough t he implementation of such OSH prog ramme , it could g ive awareness to both employers and workers of SMEs of the importance of safety, health and welfare of those who are working, and to protect others from dangers at workplace in line with the department’s objective to establish a safe culture at the workplace.

Meanwhile, the workshop also held talks, quizzes, discussions and group presentations.

The talk on the six modules was presented by DOSH Sarawak SMEs section off icer, whi le the ‘ Introduction to Workplace Diseases’ was delivered by Assoc Prof Dr Anselm Su Ting from the Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak ( Unimas).

The titles of the modules for Workshop 1 comprised Module 1 ( OSH Compliance); Module 2 ( Introduction to Department and Basic OSH Legislations); Module 3 (Functions and Responsibilities of OSH Coordinator); Module 4 (Basic OSH Management), Module 5 ( Chemicals Management) and Module 6 ( Introduction to Workplace Diseases).

The afternoon session was filled with group activities where participants were guided by the facilitator to develop OSH policy, safety and health committee and also complete the registration forms for dangerous chemicals at workplace.

Thiswillbefollowedbythesecond workshop: ‘Hazard Identification Risk and Assessment of Risk Control’ ( HIRARC) Series 1 and 2 this May before being concluded with Workshop 3: ‘ Workplace Improvement of Small Enterprise ( WISE)’ in July.

Those attending all the three workshops are qualified to be appointed as OSH coordinator at their workplace.