Occupational Health and Safety Policy: Some issues
I have been following environmental, health and safety matters in Ghana for some time now, partly because it is an ecosystem of the telecoms sub-sector, which I find myself.
Fact is, Ghana is growing relatively in Industrial and commercial dimensions and it is time to ask some basic questions to come out with solutions to issues so important as Occupational Health and Safety (OHS).
Accidents, disasters (force majeure) and occupational ill-health are global phenomena and can occur at any time.
Increased risks
The Ghanaian workforce is no exception to the daily exposure at the workplace to physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial, ergonomic hazards.
To the best of my knowledge on environmental health and safety matters, stakeholders such as civil society, business community, academia, researchers, etc., have done their part by calling on policy makers to put in place the appropriate comprehensive policy framework to ensure safety in the workplace. The establishment of different types of industries such as the construction, mining, manufacturing, agro, transport, food processing, the telecoms and the current oil and gas sectors have brought into existence a large Ghanaian workforce with similar exposures to varying modes of workplace risks.
OHS policy
Though Ghana has no meaningful OHS policy, there exists some fragmented safety and health laws used by various ministries, departments and agencies for enforcement and complementary roles. The law as existed are the Factories, Offices and shops Act 1970(328) and the Mining Regulations 1970 LI 665.
These archaic policies have only driven the mining and labour sectors, respectively, with limited effect. Others are the Workmen’s Compensation Law 1987(PNDC 187) which relates to compensation for personal injuries caused by accidents at work, Environmental Protection Agency Act 490 1994, the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospital Act 1990 ( 526), the National Road Safety Commission Act 567 1999, not forgetting Labour Act 2003 ( 651) with sections 118 to 120 directing employers and employees in their roles and responsibilities in managing Occupational Health, Safety and Environment in the nation, but not specifying any reporting structure in case of accident.
Perhaps, impliedly referring, reporting to the 1970 Act 328 of the Department of Factory Inspectorate (DoFI), the Factories, Offices and Shops Act (FOSA) is the only recognised body in Ghana by the International Labour Organisation (ILO ) on OHS. Among the core functions of DoFI are inspections of workplaces to ensure maintenance of reasonable standards of safety and health, prosecutions of offences under the Factories, Offices and Shops (Act 328), and investigation of reportable occupational accidents and dangerous occurrences. But companies hardly report such events to the inspectorate for investigation and correction for obvious reasons and rightly so, nobody trails them!
International obligation
Soon after gaining independence, Ghana became a member of the ILO. This feat meant the country should have, by now, a strong institutional framework to champion the cause of OHS for industrialisation. My information is that Ghana has ratified ILO Convention 155 on Occupational Health and Safety and Environment, but has not ratified ILO Convention 651 on Occupational Health and services.
I must say , however, that there have been some positive results on the OHS front mainly due to multinational companies such as those from Europe and America.
From their home base, workplace occupational safety are, ingrained values and integral part of their business practices and function. The worry, however, is that because we don’t have what could be considered a comprehensive policy document and standards, they only request training deployment in their home standards and certification which are very expensive and rightly so, they could not be faulted!
Policy needed
As health and safety is a shared responsibility and everyone has a role to play in making workplaces as safe and healthy as possible, bodies such as Ghana Institute Of Safety and Environmental Professionals (GHISEP), Trades Union Congress, employers, partners, Academia, Ghana Contractors Association Council (GCAC) should continue to call on the government to play their part by legislating a new policy on OHS which will assure the safety of its citizens.
In recent months, we have read reports of some work related accidents which resulted in death and serious injuries to employees, many of these issues never get reported or recorded for necessary lessons to be drawn, let alone investigated for appropriate compensations to be paid to victims.
According to the ILO, an estimated 2.3 million people die each year through work-related accidents and diseases, and 270 million suffer non-fatal workplace accidents. And each year, 160 million new cases of occupational illnesses are reported.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other organised bodies should, perhaps, be at their barking best for once, for a matter as serious as our OHS and consider a national strike as the language the government understands!
Developments
As far back as June 2000, a policy document titled, “Development of Legislation and Policy on OHS for all Sectors of the Ghanaian Economy,” was drafted as a bill by the then government. To date, we are still talking about it!
I got angry when there was yet another assurance as reported in the dailies of a “Draft factory Bill for Cabinet soon”. It further stated that the proposed Act would soon be sent to Parliament for passage.
For the record in 2012, the then Deputy Minister of Employment, Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere at the First Biennial National Safety Conference at Tema, stated that, “We are very sure that by the end of the year 2012, we will have a new Occupational, Health and Safety Policy legislation that will be effective in dealing with our workplace safety and health”.
I reckon it was still in Cabinet! The substantive minister then was E.T. Mensah. A similar assurance of passage of the proposed law was given by the same person in Koforidua during a consultation forum on the same subject. You will also agree with me that similar statements have been thrown out at such different platforms by past and present government functionaries.
Civil society
The Ghana Contractors Association Council of Ghana (GCAC) with support from BUSAC, I must say, has been vocal on the subject matter recently and I wish to commend it and admonish it not to take any statement from government functionaries when they say the policy on OHS is a done deal.
During their recent meeting with government functionaries, one Dr Stephen Lomotey of the Factories Inspectorate Department assured them that the proposed OHS Policy framework document was before Cabinet and receiving consideration.
The meeting was at the instance of the association’s commissioned report findings which inter alia stated the limitations of the existing statute law of 1970 Act 328 on the association’s activities in the policy.
The association comprises various contractor associations, including Ghana Electrical Contractors Association, Fire Protection Association of Ghana, Ghana Plumbers Association and Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana.
If such bodies, whose work activities are prone to danger are exempted from a national policy, then you can imagine the calamity that would befall if anything goes wrong.
Why should GCAC take the government serious? There are over 10 years history of the failures of successive governments on this subject matter! I will further urge them to build synergy by getting closer to other interest groups and bring them also on board, including telecom operators, vendors and especially telecom sub-contractors. Ghana Telecom Sub Contractors (SUBCONS) have not been able to form an identifiable group to advance their course. This is a disappointing blot on the telecom sector in Ghana.
The writer is a telecom engineer.
Email: Annan_eben@yahoo.com
