Workplace healthcare a must Thursday, 30 December 2010 02:55

The Labour Law No. 14/2004 looks after the safety procedures and occupational health in order to achieve the interest of the employer and the interests of the worker. The law demands the employer to inform the employee about the dangers of existing work within the institution and get him trained on methods of prevention and each company must take all measures and precautions necessary to protect the worker from the exposure to any accident or injury or disease resulting from the profession.

The law points out that the companies must comply with the health conditions, especially good ventilation of the workplace and the provision with adequate lighting. It also pointed out that the companies must comply with the provision of the Labour Law No. 14/2004 on health care for workers. (See Table below)

These measures can be replaced by contracting with a hospital to provide health care for workers and staff members.

It also pointed out the necessity of the periodic examination by employer of the workers exposed to the danger of the injury by one of the disease of the occupational diseases.

The worker must abide by the instructions of the employer with respect to the occupational health and safety to maintain their health and ensure their safety and that this obligation entails the lack of incidents and work injury whereas the majority of workers think that they are safe without taking necessary safety precautions while the incident can happen suddenly and without warning.

It is the fact that most of the accidents occur as a result of negligence. The example of it is the neglegence of workers in construction and contracting companies who work in the high places without taking safety measures and sacrifice themselves. Some wrong behaviours such as maintaining gas pipelines, assembling them in one place, exposing them to sunlight or using the gas pipelines that are not in confirmity with the conditions despite the gravity of it, lead to a big loss, especially the incidents of gas pipeline explosion are very serious and can not be easily controlled. The consequences of such accidents are bad and result in massive loss of property as well as disability and death.

Therefore, the concerned people must take into account the conditions and safety measures when dealing with them as users or distributors because these equipments represent as time bombs. These pipelines must be preserved separately in designated areas and away from the flammable chemicals in the stores.

The departments and divisions of prevention and safety in the companies must continue the training to cope with accidents and work to develop their skills and keep abreast of the latest means and methods of occupational health and safety to preserve the lives of workers and the properties of the company as well as the need to provide the tools and equipment needed to preseve the occupational health and safety and that are valid for use for a long time and must be examined periodically to ensure their validity.

The law gave the inspection and prevention department the authority to moniter the violations and work to remove them. The department will give the company a deadline to remove the violation and overhaul its condition.

The employers need to emphasise the workers to take health and safety measures, train and educate the workers to take safety precautions. The employer must provide the clean drinking water for workers. The employers are advised to allocate for workers a safe place away from the workplace to eat the food.

There is no doubt that the compliance with the law and rules will serve the interest of the employers and workers.