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Minister Goche

The success of any industry is dependent on the health of its workforce. This is because a healthy workforce is more productive than an unhealthy one, which might spend long hours attending to their health challenges rather than expending their energy on production.It therefore makes sense for industry to invest in health and safety of its workforce to ensure its continued survival.

It is against this background that we would like to urge industry to heed Government’s call to observe high standard safety and health practices at workplaces to curb the high levels of occupational accidents.

We share Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche’s concern at the rapid decline in safety standards.
“The deteriorating safety standards at the workplace are a big concern to Government. The rate at which occupational accidents in workplaces are happening is disturbing.

“The number of workplace accidents in the country has remained exceptionally high for an economy that has an average capacity utilisation of 39,7 percent,” Minister Goche told delegates at a Safety and Health at Work awards ceremony held by the National Social Security Authority in Harare last week.

According to statistics, occupational accidents in the country fell from 3 621 in the first seven months of last year to 3 241 during the same period this year. Workplace deaths declined from 63 to 49.

While we applaud the companies for the reduction in fatalities, we believe it is inexcusable for firms to fail to eliminate such accidents. We cannot continue to subject families to the anguish of losing their loved ones that would be seeking to fend for their families and improve their livelihoods.

We agree with NSSA officials that the figures are still too high and that health and safety should be infused into our everyday culture at workplaces so that we do not only protect our workers but safeguard the future of our industries through retaining skills that are lost unnecessarily through death and injury.

The suggestion to carry out research into the recurrence of accidents at workplaces is also a good one as it could unravel certain cultural shortcomings that make workers not adhere to safety regulations despite their knowledge of such regulations and standards.

It is also important to note that the responsibility to ensure the safety of workers rests on workers and employers alike. Monitoring authorities should carry out routine checks and workers should report employers that flout safety regulations since they have a right to work in a safe environment.

Workers’ attitudes of cutting corners and avoiding the use of safety equipment because they could have succeeded once in carrying out a task without protection should be discouraged.

While it is good to award prizes to firms with good safety records, safety should come first always and high safety standards should be tied to marketing whereby customers should seek to know a company’s safety standards before deciding on whether to buy its products or not.

That way we would have shown the value that we attach to human resources, the bedrock of industrial development.