New OSH policy fosters self regulation by employers

The Zimbabwe National Occupational Safety and Health policy signed recently by Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche, encourages self-regulation by employers through the adoption of a systems approach to managing safety and health at work.

In his foreword to the policy, the Minister says Zimbabwe’s national occupational safety and health performance has not been pleasing in the five years to 2013, with more than 20,000 workers being seriously injured during this period and more than 400 of them dying from their injuries.

He says the major contribution to this poor performance has been the slow uptake by employers of a systems approach in managing occupational safety and health.

All employers should, he says, have a copy of the policy and communicate it effectively to their workers, so that it can be implemented harmoniously. The policy is available from Printflow and the Occupational Safety and Health Library at NSSA.

Most accidents at work arise from uncontrolled worker factors, working environment conditions and/or the state of machinery being used.

The policy urges greater efforts to improve occupational safety and health through various approaches, chief of which is the application of occupational safety and health management systems. Accidents at work are a recognised cost to business, to workers and to society, it points out.

It stresses the need for a concerted effort by government, employers and labour in promoting and maintaining the highest degree of occupational safety and health in all occupations.

Occupational safety and health programmes, both at the national and enterprise level, must be strategically designed to anticipate, recognise, evaluate and control hazards arising from the workplace, which may also impact on the general environment, the introduction to the policy says.

The working environment should be designed to ensure that all hazards are controlled, managed or eliminated within the operational parameters of the business concern.

Preventive design and operational programmes are essential to ensure that favourable working conditions are created through the physical provision of an ideal working environment.

Attention should also be given to the acquisition of technology and installations that ensure adequate protection of workers from all identified occupational safety and health risks.

The introduction to the policy points out that workers have constitutional rights to fair and safe labour practices. It also points out that investment in safe work makes good economic sense by ensuring efficient work processes, quality products and a reduction of losses and suffering due to accidents, injuries, diseases and deaths at work.

Apart from the 20,641 serious injuries preceding the review of the policy in 2013 and the 401 deaths resulting from such injuries, NSSA’s Medical Bureau diagnosed 50 cases of preventable pneumoconiosis.

The reported occupational accidents and injuries were, the policy introduction says, excessive for an economy of Zimbabwe’s size, where industrial production capacity utilisation was only 10 percent in 2009, 57 percent in 2011 and 39,6 percent by September 2013 and where, in 2013, only just over nine percent of the population were gainfully employed in the formal sector of the economy.

According to NSSA records there were on average 1,208,402 people in gainful employment in the formal sector of the economy in 2013, which is about 9,25 percent of the total population of Zimbabwe of 13, 061, 239, which was the total population ascertained in the 2012 national census.

The decline in the number of jobs with secure contracts and work-related social benefits and the corresponding rise in precarious and unprotected work are phenomena affecting many economic sectors, the policy introduction notes, adding that, for many, employment not only fails to secure a successful pathway out of poverty but further contributes to vulnerability.

Occupational safety and health delivery is the responsibility of the government ministry responsible for labour, NSSA and the Zimbabwe Occupational Safety and Health Council, the membership of which includes government, the Employers’ Confederations of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) and labour unions.

The government has delegated to NSSA the responsibility for the national planning, development and implementation of occupational safety and health programmes.

Crucial is the contribution of enterprises themselves to promoting occupational safety and health.

A major contribution in this regard is the employment by an enterprise of safety and health professionals, the appointment of competent persons to be responsible for machinery safety, the establishment of safety and health committees and the adoption of occupational safety and health management systems.

“An accident prevention culture is absolutely necessary in every workplace to halt the carnage due to accidents,” the policy introduction says, adding that employer and worker attitudes and beliefs determine how business activities are carried out at work.

Such attitudes and beliefs can be shaped to some extent by people’s education, training and level of understanding of occupational safety and health issues, it says.

The policy objectives have been set, the policy document says, by the government with the full participation of employers and workers in all sectors of the economy, including the self-employed.

The policy sets out to promote occupational safety and health through the participation of government, employer organisations and labour unions.

It stipulates that every worker has the right to fair and safe labour practices, to know the occupational safety and health risks that he or she is likely to be exposed to and their effects, to be consulted in the development of mitigating mechanisms for identified occupational safety and health risks and to refuse to undertake any work that has not been rendered safe.

l Talking Social Security is published weekly by the National Social Security Authority as a public service.

There is also a weekly radio programme on social security, PaMhepo neNssa/Emoyeni le NSSA, at 6.50PM every Thursday on Radio Zimbabwe and Friday on National FM. Readers can e-mail issues they would like dealt with in this column to [email protected] or text them to 0772-307913. Those with individual queries should contact their local NSSA office or telephone NSSA on (04) 706523/5, 706545/9, or 799030/1.