A Sad Day For Construction Industry.

Jaya Supermarkets Incidents Claim Lives.

A sad day indeed, at this time of writing Jaya Supermarket Incident had already claims 3 lives . The Search & Rescue Operation is still continue for the remaining 3. I could only offer my condolences to the relatives.

You may read the story here or here.

Shall you passed by any construction site within Malaysia, a banner or signboard in green or blue with the words "Safety First" will always greet you.

Does Safety always comes First?.

I've been working within this industry for the past 10 years, the Government has has done a lot to improve Safety aspect in construction or any other industry since 1967 with Factories & Machinery Act. After the ' Bright Sparklers' incident in Sg. Buloh. OSHA Act was enacted in 1994.

Department of Occupational Safety and Health, CIDB and NIOSH even SOCSO has done a very good job in promoting Safe Work Practice thru their awareness campaign.

Government allocated hundreds of thousand yearly to improve our work safe conditions, the law is there but does our Employer or Our self really has Safety in minds..

Ive work with International based company before , during any Meeting conducted first item you discussed will be safety. Then only work progress but if you are working within Malaysian based company the other thing around. Progress or Production Always Comes First.

Malaysian reluctant to adopt safe work practice as their habit.

Either employer nor employees has the same mind set. This is the real cause of incident recurring. Last year DOSH reported to issue 5,559 NCR to various sector within Malaysia . To me its a little low figure if we compare to actual figure of incident. Lets not blame them as they are short in numbers of staff.

Do we aware of our responsibility.

Employers should aware that they have a responsibility towards their employees:-

OSHA ACT 1994 -
Section 15 General Duties of Employers and Self Employed Persons to their Employees :

(1) It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the matters to which the duty extends include in particular-

(a) the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is practicable, safe and without risks to health;

(b) the making of arrangements for ensuring, so far as is practicable, safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use or operation, handling, storage and transport of plant and substances;

(c) the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety and health at work of his employees;

(d) so far as is practicable, as regards any place of work under the control of the employer or self-employed person, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of the means of access to and egress from it that are safe and without such risks;

(e) the provision and maintenance of a working environment for his employees that is, so far as is practicable, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities for their welfare at work.............
and of course its come with penalty

'Section 19 - A person who contravenes the provisions of section 15, 16, 17 or 18 shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both'

Not to forgets Employee also have your own responsibility:-

Section 24 General Duties of Employees
(1) It shall be the duty of every employee while at work-

(a) to take reasonable care for the safety and health of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work;

(b) to co-operate with his employer or any other person in the discharge of any duty or requirement imposed on the employer or that other person by this Act or any regulation made thereunder;

(c) to wear or use at all times any protective equipment or clothing provided by the employer for the purpose of preventing risks to his safety and health; and

(d) to comply with any instruction or measure on occupational safety and health instituted by his employer or any other person by or under this Act or any regulation made thereunder.

(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both.
.....................

Safety is everyone Responsibility. Neither You nor your employers or employees could deny it by law.

To Employer don't just spoke about cost and progress. Life's comes first
Employees should not take things for granted.

If every one adopt a Safe Work Practice in your daily task. Our workplace Will be much Safer.

Accidents Does Pays, Value your live.