‘Occupational Health and Safety’ draft bill ready for parliament

An Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) draft bill, developed to protect the livelihoods of victims of occupational accident, injuries and fatalities at workplace, and their dependents, is currently before the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and will soon be sent to parliament for consideration and onward passage into law.

The bill, when passed into law is expected to create a comprehensive national framework for effectively coordinating and harmonising occupational safety and health issues in the country to enhance the well-being of workers. It will strengthen occupational safety and health-related research and the adoption of modern and cost-effective technology, in addition to policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation structures for effectiveness and efficiency.

The comprehensive document, being spearheaded by The Ghana Employers Association (GEA) with financial support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), will incorporate the informal sector which contributes about 80 percent of the country’s labour force.

Ghana currently does not have  an OSH policy -- existing legislation providing for the safety, health and well-being of persons at work are outmoded, limited in scope, splintered, overlapping, scattered and under the jurisdiction of different Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

These were made known in Accra during a business discussion, Business Advocate, a programme organised in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and supported by DANIDA, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and European Union (EU), and facilitated by Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA). It was under the topic ‘Review of National Ocupational Safety and Health Policy’.

Mrs. Emma Ofori-Agyemang, a Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, confirmed that the country has some laws and policies which regulate OSH issues but they are fragmented and prescriptive.

“There are some laws in place that regulate or point to the fact that we need to pay attention to occupational safety and health issues. The constitution itself - Article 401 - clearly spells out the rights and safety of average workers at the workplace. We also have the Factories, Offices and Shops Act 1970 (328) that points to the regulation of OSH.

“Indeed, others are the Mining Regulations 1970 LI 665; the Workman Compensation Act of 1987 Act 187; the Radiation Protection Instrument; and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act of 1984 Act 490 all have concern for OSH issues.”

She explained that the Labour Law of 2003, Act 625, is the most recent one that regulates or attempts to regulate occupational health safety in this country.

Mrs. Ofori-Agyemang indicated that in 2015 alone, government paid as much as GH₵3million as compensation to about 262 injured people at the workplace. Again, in 2012 government paid a little above GH₵1.5million as compensation to some injured people, as employers had to pay over GH₵200,000 to their injured workers in that year.

“So, it has a huge financial cost to the government. All these monies could have used for something else. It is also a human resource factor; if you have a worker and he gets injured, dies or is incapacitated, you lose a worker forever,” Mrs. Ofori-Agyemang stated.

“The injured themselves bring untold hardship to their families and friends as well. So it is really a burden on government and society as a whole.”

Daniel Owusu Boatey, a senior official of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), and Charles Asante-Bempong-Director, Research Projects, Ghana Employers Association (GEA), both agreed that it has taken long for the country to get the bill pass into law, but they are hopeful that it will be sent to parliament before end of this year.

Mr. Boatey said: “The policy is still in a draft form, though we started the bill process as far back in 2001. ILO Convention 155 that will give the policy legal backing has also not been ratified by parliament,” said Mr. Boatey, and urged parliamentarians to “ratify the ILO convention within the shortest possible time”.

He observed that the “existing laws are fragmented -- to the extent that they are too cumbersome to implement. For instance, the EPA can carry out inspection at one factory today and tomorrow the Factory Inspection division will also conduct a similar inspection at the same factory. This duplication of inspections alone frustrates employers and employees”.

He revealed that 4% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) is spent annually on occupational safety and health issues.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO) statistics, an estimated 2.23 million people die each year from work-related accidents and diseases. Of these, the vast majority -- an estimated 2.02 million -- die from a wide range of work-related diseases.

Occupational diseases cause huge suffering and loss in the world or work -- yet occupational or work-related diseases remain largely invisible in comparison to industrial accidents, even though they kill six times as many people each year.  This translates into 5,500 deaths a day from causes related to work, he said.

Fred Ohene-Mensah, the Chief Factory Inspector at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations indicated that health and safety at workplaces started from the colonial days.

 “The British brought the Factories Ordinance right way back in 1950 that travelled to 1970 when it was reviewed and we had the Factories, Offices, and Shops Act. So, governments over the years have had an eye on health and safety right from the colonial days up to this time. But they have been fragmented.That is why they seem not to be working at the movement,” Mr. Ohene-Mensah said.

Mr. Asante-Bempong, Director, Research Projects of GEA, indicated that the current Labour Law recognises the legislation for occupational safety and health but it is weakly enforced.

“I think Section 118 of the law really talks about occupational safety and health, responsibility of the employer, responsibility of workers, and so on. So the law, I would say, takes occupational safety and health very seriously. I think the education on OSH is lagging,” he stated.

“We need to take it very seriously. We need to educate employers and workers to know about it and apply the law’s various tenets. And I think that will contribute to health and safety at the various workplaces in the country,” Mr. Asante-Bempong urged.

Mr. Asante-Bempong explained: “GEA has been very influential when it comes to the implementation of fragmented laws on the OSH. Our members are abreast with issues concerning OSH.

“We started certificate and diploma courses in occupational safety and health in collaboration with Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA),” he said.

“In 2007 we also saw the need to really do a survey among our members to find out their occupational safety and health needs. We realised that they were facing a lot of challenges when it comes to enforcement. The enforcement was below what the Factory Inspection division requires,” Mr. Asante-Bempong emphasised.

 “We came out with a voluntary document for five sectors including manufacturing, building and construction, and hotels and tourism to help them address their OSH issues by themselves,” he remarked.