Substandard workplaces face closure

By John Agaba

Government, in a move to avert the number of accidents at workplaces and to promote occupational safety, plans to close all work places that do not meet minimum safety standards, the gender ministry has said.  

This is in line with the 2006 Occupational Safety and Health Act, No.9, which mandates the ministry to ensure that all public and private workplaces/enterprises/companies/organizations adhere to safety and health measures.

Pius Bigirimana, the ministry’s permanent secretary, said Government will work with the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), in Kampala, to inspect all workplaces and crack the whip on those that don’t meet the standards.

Outside Kampala, the ministry will outsource for officers who will comb all workplaces whether they meet the minimum safety and health standards, Bigirimana said.

“We have a lot of workplaces that don’t comply with these guidelines. They don’t have accessible features for persons with disabilities. They don’t have adequate fire safety systems, adequate sanitary amenities for occupiers and users. Their staircases/corridors are below minimum standard requirements. All these will be closed,” Bigirimana said.

The PS said, as a result of many workstations not adhering to the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the law enforcement being too lax about it, “many lives have been lost at the workplace.”

“Over the recent past, there have been rampant occupational accidents at construction sites, where excavations have caved in, rooftops of structures collapsed; there have been fire outbreaks. We want to guard against this,” Bigirimana said, adding that officials from the ministry, together with police, will start the inspections today (Monday). “The deadline is December 31. All workplaces found wanting after December 31, will be closed,” Bigirimana said.

Section 40 of the Act also mandates the Commissioner for Occupational Safety and Health to keep a register of all workplaces in the country, and Section 41 requires that a fee be paid before a workplace is registered.

To this effect, Bigirimana said all workplaces will also be registered. And they will pay the registration fee “depending on the nature of work, level of risk they pose, or the number of workers they employ.”

However, Amos Twiine, a Kampala businessman, described the move by the gender ministry as “very un-pragmatic”, saying “what the country needs are jobs. Not Government regulating workplaces that aren’t enough.”

Others still were skeptical the move would take off, describing it as “another of those whimsical decisions from Government that have never been implemented.”

David Atwooki Mugisa, the assistant commissioner for occupational safety and health, however, said, the move was not intended at suffocating workplaces and proprietors, but to facilitate them comply with the provisions in the Act, so they can ably manage the challenges and risks associated with the work environment.

“Safety is a responsibility of everyone. It does not only affect the employees. It also affects the employer,” Dr. Deogratius Ssekimpi, a technical advisor in occupational safety and health, said.

“We shall be assessing the risk in every workplace. Each workplace has its unique risk. We want to highlight these so the proprietor or owner of the workplace addresses them before the deadline,” Ssekimpi said.