Government Aims To Reduce Occupational Accidents By 2015 - Riot

KUCHING, July 7 (Bernama) -- The government, through the human resources ministry, targets to reduce workplace-related accidents to three in 1,000 workers by 2015, as compared to 3.31 in every 1,000 workers last year.

Minister Datuk Richard Riot said the government's commitment in occupational health and safety would improve Malaysia's image and international trade as foreign and local companies become confident with the government's concern on labour.

"This is in line with the 2013 Budget presented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to stimulate investment in Malaysia which is expected to increase to RM148.4 billion this year," he said.


He said this when officiating the national-level 2013 Occupational Health and Safety Week at the Kuching Waterfront here today.

Also present was Social Security Organisation (Socso) chief executive Datuk K. Selvarajah and Department of Occupational Health and Safety (Dosh) director-general Datuk Dr Johari Basri.

Riot said the number of occupational accidents, whether commuting accidents or accidents at the workplace, as reported by Socso last year, stood at 61,552 cases as compared to 59,897 cases in 2011, indicating a 2.67 per cent increase.

Of this figure, commuting accidents increased from 41.42 per cent in 2011 to 42.66 per cent last year, while accidents at the workplace showed a drop, he noted.

The Sarawak Socso recorded 333 commuting accidents out of 1,703 accidents at the workplace until May this year, as compared to 937 cases out of 4,487 last year.

Selvarajah said as a government body that pioneered the Employees Social Security Scheme, Socso would launch a safe commuting campaign with focus on efforts to prevent commuting accidents.

The move was in line with Socso's mission to provide occupational safety and health awareness to employers and the insured, which was an objective of the International Labour Organisation, he said.

However, he added that the goal could not be reached without cooperation from the employers and workers, and Dosh had even come up with the 2015 Occupational Health and Safety Main Plan (OSH MP15) which covers four strategies.
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