Effective coordination amongst multiple agencies that share responsibilities for occupational safety and health (OSH) in industries is a must to avoid overlapping, negative impacts caused by different approaches, and lack of enforcement and collaboration with private sector – to ensure safe and decent workplace, experts said.
A number of Government ministries including industries, labour and employment, home affairs, and housing and public works along with their different departments share multiple responsibilities, like boiler safety, chemical handling, fire prevention, fire-fighting emergency plans, building structural integrity, labour inspections and industrial safety.
As a result, there are overlapping responsibilities, while different approaches impact negatively on safety and cause lack of enforcement, they added.
Industry people at the event also focused on formulation of industrial safety framework to coordinate the multiple interventions including national OSH policies, enforcement of building codes, compliance with labour act, safe and healthy work practices, risk assessments and awareness raising, and training and research of all relevant entities for development of a safe environment for all working in the industries.