Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has stressed the role of Occupational Safety and Health Authority (Osha) in industrial growth in the country.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled) Jenista Mhagama said the middle-income economy involved industrial production that required strong systems of protecting workers from risks in the workplace.
She said this in Morogoro yesterday during the opening of the first meeting of Osha’s 4th workers’ council.
“In every workplace there are various risks that can affect workers. Therefore, if there are no strong mechanisms for supervising and protecting workers the nation may lose its workforce and increase the number of dependants,” the minister said.
She appealed to Osha to continue improving its operations to provide better services to citizens, including allocating special time for hearing and addressing challenges facing stakeholders in the country.
Meanwhile, Ms Mhagama urged the members of Osha workers’ council to work diligently, be patriotic and fight against corruption so that they could effectively contribute to national development.
Earlier, Osha Acting Chief Executive Officer Khadija Mwenda told the minister that so far Osha performance was good, something which enabled it to surpass last year’s targets.
“From July 2019 to June 2020 Osha has registered 6,837 work stations against its target of registering 5,306 work stations. We have also inspected 16,923 work stations,” Ms Mwenda explained.
Occupational safety inspection was done on electric systems, steam boilers, gas cylinders, air receivers, construction sites and buildings and other construction tools.
For her part, Secretary of the Tanzania Union of Government and Health Employees (Tughe) in Dar es Salaam Region Sarah Rwezaura commended Tughe for embracing the principles of good governance by engaging workers in key decision-making processes.
Commenting, representative of the general council of the government workers Fidelis Gakuba reminded members of Osha workers’ council that they were part of the government and that they should work to help the government reduce complaints in the workplace.
