Africa-Press – Seychelles. Need to nurture a national safety and health culture
The 23rd Safety Week was officially launched yesterday at the Nayopi conference centre. The Ministry of Employment & Social Affairs has once again adopted the theme chosen by the International Labour Organisation for World Day of Safety and Health at Work which is ‘Act together, to build a positive safety and health culture’.
While launching the week, the Minister for Employment & Social Affairs, Patricia Francourt, underlined the importance to achieve a national safety and health culture where all parties should be conscious of their respective duties and responsibilities. “The government, through the ministry, remains committed to ensuring that occupational safety and health remains a national priority by ensuring that the necessary legal framework and national system are in place and reviewed periodically and that adequate resources are allocated towards the promotion of occupational safety and health.”
Speaking about the revision of the law, Minister Francourt noted that this year they have finalised the terms of reference for the appointment of a consultant who will have the huge task of identifying the gaps in the current occupational safety and health legislation based on current global and national situation.
“Additionally, the ministry is currently revising its strategic plan and one of the proposed priorities is to reduce occupational accidents and non-compliance with employment laws and regulations by employers, through strengthening of the employment regulatory frameworks and enforcement system and collaborations with tripartite constituents and all stakeholders. This is in line with a commitment that I made before the National Assembly in September this year when answering questions relating to accidents at work, a situation that is not only a concern for the ministry but the public in general.”
Dr Vanessa Lesperance, chairperson of the occupational safety board, noted that “one of the main challenges we currently have is under reporting of accidents and injuries and this results in difficulties to have information that we need to interpret and to translate into actions to mitigate the challenges that the organisations have. This is a major setback for us. The reporting of incidents is required by law but it is not being respected as such. We are unable to know the real status of the health of the workers out there”.
Dr Lesperance also noted that there are organisations who do not have a health and safety representative and therefore they are not focusing on health and safety.
“We have the Occupational Safety Health decree from 1978. It has been quite a few years and of course a lot of things have happened in health and safety and there is a need to review this law and upgrade it. There is a lot of work being done in this respect, especially we need employers and employees to be well informed of the global standards of today.”
Minister Francourt concluded by saying that employers have to ensure that occupational management systems are embedded in the business’ management structure whereby occupational safety and health becomes one of the core values of the business and incorporated in all endeavours of the business.
The launch was also attended by Minister Billy Rangasamy and was followed by a forum with safety officers where they were able to learn more on the various incidents that occur in the workplace and why it is crucial for the organisations to report on them.
The accompanying photos show some highlights of the ceremony yesterday to launch Safety Week 2022.
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