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Nor Halim (fourth right) presents the Grade A certificate to James, witnessed by Khirudin (centre) and others.
KUCHING (May 23): The number of workplace deaths in Sarawak has shown a decline since 2017, says Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Sarawak director Dr Nor Halim Hasan.
In this regard, he said the downward trend could be attributed to rising awareness of occupational health and safety (OSH) among both the employees and the employers.
It was reported that 22 death-at-work cases were reported last year, down from 34 cases in 2017.
Moreover, he said previously the construction sector recorded many workplace deaths, but the number of cases had gone down from 11 deaths in 2017, to three last year.
“The number of death cases has gone down, despite the rapid development.
“This is because we believe in creating awareness among the employers and the employees of safety issues, and also taking the necessary steps towards it (raising awareness),” he said during a press conference held after the opening ceremony of World OSH Day 2023 at Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) headquarters here today, where Bomba Sarawak director Datu Khirudin Drahman and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Sarawak manager Normiza Suhaili were also present.
Citing the statistics, Nor Halim said as of April this year, there were four death-at-work cases recorded.
“It’s one case each in the manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, forestry, and real estate finance and business services sectors.
“In addition, there were four cases of accidents involving permanent disability, and 121 cases involving non-permanent disability,” he added.
On another subject, Nor Halim stressed that DOSH would never compromise with any party found to be violating the rules or guidelines that had been set.
“Currently, anyone found to have failed to comply with the rules would be fined a maximum of RM50,000, according to the existing Act.
“Nevertheless, upon the gazettement of the amendments to the Act, anyone found to be violating the regulations would be fined up to RM500,000,” he said.
On World OSH Day, Nor Halim said the core objective was to promote a culture of preventing occupational accidents and diseases, as well as upholding health and safety at the workplace.
“In addition, the World OSH Day also serves to deliver the latest information related to OSH issues apart from creating intelligent information-sharing between the government, the employers and the employees.”
At the event yesterday, Bomba Serian station was announced as having achieved ‘Grade A’ following an audit carried out by DOSH Sarawak.
The station’s head James Gani was present to accept the certificate.
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