Employers paying more attention to minimising occupational accidents despite sharp drop in cases: Lam Thye

PETALING JAYA: The country is seeing a staggering decrease in occupational accidents in the past two years due to the slowdown in economic activity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Occupational Safety and Health Department recorded 6,719 cases between January and November 2022, a slight increase of 0.5% compared with 6,686 cases reported in the previous year.

Of the 6,719 workplace accidents last year, 6,306 cases involved injuries without permanent disabilities, 227 suffered permanent disabilities, and 186 involved fatalities.

However, the number of occupational accident for the past two years is strikingly low compared with 2017 (42,513 cases), 2018 (35,460) and 2019 (40,811).

Alliance for Safe Community chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said, “Because of the series of movement control orders and lockdowns imposed to curb Covid-19 transmission, economic activities especially in the manufacturing, construction and transport sectors were directly affected. Therefore, comparisons should only be made when our economy has recovered.”

“Still, going into the endemic phase of Covid-19, I could see that employers giving more attention to the issue of workplace safety, particularly for accidents that are preventable,” he told theSun.

Lee said the government has gazetted the Occupational Safety and Health Bill in March last year as the Occupational Safety and Health (Amendment) Act 2022, which will come into effect soon.

“Section 29A (1) of the law requires employers to provide a safety coordinator when the minimum number of employees reaches five. Previously, a safety coordinator will only be appointed once there are 40 employees.”

Section 29A (1) further states that “an employer whose place of work is not included in any class or description of place of work as published in the Gazette under subsection 29(1) shall appoint one of his employees to act as an occupational safety and health coordinator if he employs five or more employees at his place of work.

“An employer who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both.”

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said despite the significant reduction of occupational accidents in the past two years, employers still have to endure losing employees (due to end of employment and fatalities) and bear the extra costs due to workday, income and production losses as a result of occupational accidents.

“In the event of a workplace accident, employers tend to look at the immediate cause and take actions to ensure that the area where the workplace accident occurred is managed, leaving work operations at other areas to continue.

“However, employers must dive deeper into the root causes of workplace accidents, taking into account the costs of the accident, and all preventable costs due to industrial accidents,” he told theSun.

Syed Hussain said the costs arising from ill-health, accidents and deaths at work cannot be totally recovered through the Social Security Organisation (Socso), adding that: “Safety and health practitioners estimate that the hidden costs can be as high as 10 times greater than what can be recovered through Socso.

“Some of the hidden costs that are not recoverable are lost production time, loss of additional wages such as overtime pay and hiring temporary workers, loss of product, time invested for investigations, possible fines and penalties, loss of contracts and damage to reputation, and legal costs.

“Another cost that employers need to bear is the cost of commuting accidents, an accident which occurs en route from workers’ residence and place of work or work-related training location and vice versa.”

Syed Hussain said improvements need to be made in the current safety standards in workplaces, especially in factories and construction sites.

“Employers need to invest in industrial accident prevention and conduct regular safety and health training, making safety a company culture and prevent injuries and fatalities in the workplace.”

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