ADDIS ABABA (ENA)– Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) called on all stakeholders to give due attention to safety and health at workplace.
Speaking at the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (April 28) celebrated in Addis Ababa, MoLSA State Minister Ayelech Eshete said issues of safety and health in Ethiopia need to be given due attention by stakeholders, considering it as one of the development agenda of the country.
W/ro Ayelech stated that investors are obviously creating many jobs for citizens, at the same time the investors need to develop safety and health services for workers.
Integrative approach among stakeholders and continuous training about safety and health has to be enhanced to protect safety and health of the workers before problems happen since technology related problems are becoming complex with time, the state minster noted.
Ethiopian Industry Employers’ Confederation Secretary-General, Dawit Moges said safety and health related issues are increasing at workplaces as industries are expanding.
According to Ato Dawit, 60 out of 100,000 workers face physical, psychological and social damages every year due to safety and health related problems in the workplace.
The Confederation is working with the government and MoLSA to reduce the vulnerability by giving preventive mechanism training for the workers and following their health status every six month, he stated.
The Secretary-General suggested that the government increases the number of occupational safety controlling workers to expand safety and health services at all workplaces.
Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU) Vice President, Ayalew Ahmed said the main problem of safety and health at workplace is the absence of active participation and lack of initiation on the part of investors and insurance companies for safety and health issues of workers.
There is also lack of awareness of employees about preventive methods for safety and health, he added. Therefore, employers as well as employees need to give priority for safety and health at workplace.
Globally, according to the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), there was an estimated 2.78 million fatalities compared to 2.33 million estimated in 2011. For fatal occupational accidents, there were 380,500 deaths, an increase of 8% in 2014 compared to 2010. Fatal work-related diseases had been a concern since 1998 and were at least five times higher than fatalities due to occupational accidents. In 2015, there were 2.4 million deaths due to fatal work-related diseases, an increase of 0.4 million compared to 2011.
In total, it is estimated that more than 7,500 people die every day; 1,000 from occupational accidents and 6,500 from work-related diseases. The rate of fatal occupational accidents increased slightly. The number of non-fatal occupational accidents was estimated to be 374 million, increasing significantly from 2010. The main reason was that a higher under-reporting estimate was used compared to the previous estimates, according to ICOH’s 2017 report.