Factory, Office and Shop Act before Cabinet; after broken

promises, can we trust govt?

I have been following Environmental Health and safety matters in Ghana for some time now,
partly because it is a part of the ecosystem of the telecom subsector which I find myself. Fact is,
Ghana is growing relatively in Industrial commercial dimension and it is time some we did some
synthesis and isolates solutions to such issue so important as Occupational Health and safety
(OHS).
Accidents, disasters (force majeure) and occupational ill-health are global phenomena and
occur at any time and the Ghanaian workforce is no exception, in fact, on daily being exposed
to workplace physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial, ergonomic hazards.
Groups as such as civil Society, business community, academia, researchers, etc., have done
their part on calling on policy makers to put in place the appropriate comprehensive policy
framework to ensure safety in the workplace. The establishment of different types of
industries such as Construction, Mining, Manufacturing, Agro, Transport, Food Processing, the
Telecom subsector and the current Oil and Gas in Ghana has brought into existence of a large
Ghanaian workforce with similar exposure of varying modes of workplace scenarios.
Though Ghana has no meaningful OHS policy, there exist some fragmented safety and health
laws used by various government bodies. The law as existed are the Factories, Offices and
shops Act 1970(Act 328) and the Mining Regulations 1970 LI 665 considered the main edicts.
These archaic policies have only driven the mining and Labour sector respectively with limited
effect. Others are the Workmens Compensation Law 1987(PNDC 187) which relates to
compensation for personal injuries caused by accidents at work, Environmental Protection
Agency Act 490 1994, the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospital 1990 ( Act 526), the
National Road Safety Commission Act 567 1999 and Labour Act 2003 ( Act 651) with sections
118 to 120 directing employers and employees in their roles and responsibilities in managing
Occupational Health, Safety and Environment in the nation but not specific to any reporting
structure in case of accident perhaps, implicatively referring reporting to the Act 1970 (Act
328) of the Department of Factory Inspectorate (DoFI) .The Factories, Offices and Shops Act is
the only recognized body in Ghana by the International Labour Organization(ILO) on OHS.
Among the core functions of DoFI are inspections of workplaces to ensure maintenance of
reasonable standards of safety and health, prosecutions of offences under the Factories,
Offices and Shops (Act 328), and investigation of reportable occupational accidents and
dangerous occurrences. But Companies hardly report such events to the inspectorate for
investigation and correction for obvious reasons and rightly so, nobody trails them!
After gaining independence, Ghana became a member of the International Labour( ILO)
Organization. This feat meant the country should have strong institutional framework to
champion the course of OHS for industrialization. Ghana is yet to ratify ILO Convention 155 and
161 on Occupational Health and Safety and Health Services respectively.
However, there have been some positive results on the Occupational Health and Safety front
due, mainly to multinational companies such as those from Europe and North America
especially The UK, Canada the USA respectively whom, from their home base, workplace
occupational safety are values ingrained and integral part of their business processes and place
demands on their partners, especially contractors/suppliers.
During the recent Ghana Contractors Association Council (GCAC )meeting with government
functionaries, one Dr. Stephen Lomotey of Factories Inspectorate Department assured them
that the proposed OHS Policy was before Cabinet and receiving consideration .The meeting
was at the instance of the Councils commissioned report findings which, inter alia, stated the
limitations of the existing statute law of 1970 Act 328 on the its activities. But why should
GCAC take government serious? Research has it that as far back as 2000, a policy document
titled Development of Legislation and Policy on OHS for all Sectors of the Ghanaian Economy
was drafted as a bill by the then government. Till date, we are still talking it! My anger was
lifted to put down this piece when yet another assurance as indicated in the 5th of June
Daily headlined Draft factory Bill for Cabinet soon. It further stated that the proposed Act
would soon be sent to Parliament for passage. For the records, the then Deputy Minister of
Employment, Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere at the First Biennial National Safety Conference at
Tema stated and I quote him we are very sure that by the end of the year (2012) we will have a
new Occupational, Health and Safety Policy legislation that will be effective in dealing with our
workplace safety and health. Surprisingly, the interplay between the subject matter and jobs
creation for the teeming unemployed graduate youth in inspectorate positions remains
unexhausted
Ebenezer Annang
Telecom domain Analyst,
EHS Manager
annan_eben@yahoo.com