Crucial to report all industrial accidents – NIOSH

A nationwide awareness campaign is necessary to report every workplace accident, especially in the construction sector, says National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye in a Bernama report.

“Although it is compulsory for employers to report such cases under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994, many employers are still unaware of this,” he said in a statement here today.

Government agencies such as NIOSH and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), Lee says, require complete and accurate data to help formulate strategies and training programmes to help reduce industrial accidents.

A study titled ‘Malaysian Construction Industry: Trends of Occupational Accidents from 2006 to 2015’, published in the Journal of Occupational Safety and Health 2016, said the number of cases investigated by DOSH was low.

“According to DOSH statistics, the construction sector recorded the highest total fatalities caused by occupational accidents from 2007 to last year, with 751 deaths,” said the NIOSH chairman.

On average, Lee adds, the number of accidents reported to the Social Security Organisation was 10 times higher that those reported to DOSH.

Section 51 of OSHA and regulation 13 of the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 2004 prescribes penalties for failure to report and keep records of workplace accidents. The penalties for a conviction is fine not exceeding RM10,000 or a maximum one-year jail term or both. — Construction+ Online