By Jonah Nyoni
Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. You get to a construction site and find workers working without personal protective equipment.
Dust is visibly affecting both their sight and breath.
You go into a mine and find that workers are working without helmets, safety shoes, and proper lighting.
You go into an office and find someone seated on an ergonomically uncomfortable chair.
The people who should be protected do not know that they must be protected.
The assumption is: “I have been given a job, so let me produce as demanded.”
At times, the economy makes the worker desperate; if I lose this job, where will I get the next?
As a result, most people work themselves to death.
Is it the worker’s right to have occupational safety?
The worker has rights, and he is protected by the law.
Zimbabwe is bound and regulated by an occupational safety and health (OSH) regulatory framework.
Every worker has rights as laid out in a number of legislations in Zimbabwe.
These legislations include, but are not limited to: the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Labour Act (Chapter 28:01), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Chapter 29:17).
These laws protect workers against forced labour, work discrimination, unfair labour practices, the right to stop work without notice if facing an imminent occupational hazard, and collective bargaining.
If you are an employee, worker, or service provider, you must know your personal safety and health rights.
This protects you from abuse and reduces occupational health hazards.
If you do not take care of yourself at work, you will die and leave your precious family behind.
Take time to read up on regulations and laws on occupational safety.
Also, you need to research industry-specific issues that might be hazardous.
For example, you might be working in a mine.
Are you aware of the protective clothing you must use?
Are your lungs safe from dust?
Are you aware that there are some untreatable effects such as systemic organ damage affecting your lungs, liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and brain?
There are chronic and even incurable respiratory diseases such as pneumoconiosis, silicosis, byssinosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis that come from inhaling airborne dusts and mists.
These are dangerous diseases that you might not know, but they will affect you, especially in your work in mines.
Additionally, are you aware that you can suffer the effects through skin contact, inhalation, or ingestion of hazardous materials while working in a mine?
The importance of an OSH department in every company
Every company must have an OSH department.
Why? Because we are trying to protect the most important resource under the earth; the human resource.
This department helps reduce occupational health risks, accidents, and ailments.
They create a safer occupational space.
Additionally, if incidents and accidents are reduced, that increases the company’s reputation.
Who wants to work in a death trap? No one!
The OSH department helps the company understand and meet both national and international health and safety regulations, helping the company avoid heavy penalties.
The OSH department also provides training or knows how to outsource health and safety experts.
OSHEMAC
A few years back, I undertook the Occupational Safety, Health and Environmental Management Course (OSHEMAC), run by the National Social Security Authority.
This was for my personal indulgence and to bolster my training services.
I got more than I bargained for.
In this course, you get to know the basic classifications of health hazards.
These hazard clusters are physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial.
So every company can have one of its employees trained to head the OSH department.
This is a management course.
It goes beyond occupational safety and health as it sprouts into management, communication, risk management, occupational law and a lot more.
Occupational safety and health is very important.
Every worker must learn and protect themselves. Industry experts must advocate that workers be protected at all costs.
A life lost is a resource lost.
You are not just a death statistic; you are value that has been lost.
Source: NewsDay
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