Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
GOVERNMENT has started crafting a Harmonised Safety and Health Bill aimed at updating legal frameworks towards improved occupational health and safety standards in the country.
The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, working closely with the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), are seized with the process, which would tackle the loopholes in the old legislative provisions.
Addressing journalists during a recent virtual Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) journalistic mentorship programme, NSSA occupational safety and health (OSH) deputy director, Dr Betty Nyereyegona, said the need to update the occupational health legal framework was urgent.
“You find that currently the pieces of legislation that we derive our mandate from are very fragmented and archaic,” she said.
“We are dealing with 1974, 78 pieces of legislation and a lot has happened and developed within the industry, and it becomes so difficult to enforce as they don’t cover everything we need to address.”
Zimbabwe is using the Factories and Works Act 14:08 of 1976 with eight regulations, the NSSA Act 17:04, NSSA (Accident prevention and workers’ compensation scheme) Regulations SI 68 of 1990, Pneumoconiosis Act (Cap 15:08), Radiation Protection SI 62 of 2011 and the Labour Relations Act 28:01 of 1996.
Dr Nyereyegona said these must be consolidated to a harmonise framework.
“There have been emerging issues like digitisation and the new Bill seeks to address the issue of ‘safety sensitive areas’ and needs to look at other factors like occupational stress,” she said.
“So, we need a bigger presence in the workplace because the legislation had the safety sensitive areas and left out places like banks and newsrooms for example.
“In actual fact, that is where most of our claims are coming from because people are getting injured while at work.”
The interventions come amid reports that Zimbabwe in general has maintained an unsafe working status for a long time, according to statistics given by the department. The country has recorded between 70 and 100 deaths per year as a result of occupational hazards.
The country has also lost about US$439 million due to occupational injuries between 2009 and 2018, translating to about US$44 million per year. This translates into about three percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) being chewed by occupational hazards every year.
Dr Nyereyegona, however, said there was a problem of underreporting deaths or injuries meaning figures could be higher than reported. She said the proposed Safety and Health Bill (SHB), which is now before the Attorney General, is set to help create a conducive working environment.
“We drafted the harmonised SHB in liaison with Government, labour unions and the employer with the hope that it will go a long way in improving the conditions at the work place and reduce the costs both human and monetary,” she said.
Besides the Bill, Dr Nyereyegona said her department has been working in complementing efforts by the Social Security Department through assisting pensioners access health.
The department is also registering and examining ex-Wenela miners so that if they contracted disease during their working days, they can get compensated.
Dr Nyereyegona also said the department was engaging the informal sector so that workers can get covered by their programmes.
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