Every year, April 28 is designated as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) announced April 28, 2020, as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, with this meaningful phrase, “Stop the pandemic: Safety and health at work can save lives”. The focus for this year would be on addressing the outbreak of infectious diseases at work, in particular COVID-19.

We are fully aware that our country, Malaysia, is also facing the threat of COVID-19.

At present, our health workers including doctors, nurses, pharmaceutical workers and medical laboratory technicians,are the frontliners facing the biggest challenge of continuing to handle the high number of patients who have contracted this life-threatening disease. These frontliners are apparentlyat high risk of exposure to the virus. They are from theprofessionals and employees groups and are indeed very committed, rendering their services diligently without complaints.

At this juncture, these groups of professionals and employeesmust be physically and mentally prepared to handle this painful and frightening situation. At the same time, the issue of the need of supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is very crucial. The PPE has to be provided to all frontline forces without fail. Obviously, the frontline forces must haveplaced their trust in their employers, to ensure that they areprotected and safe from the risk of infection while serving their beloved country.

Clearly, in the context of legislation pertaining to safety and health at work in Malaysia, the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 is the main legislation that stipulates the important obligations of the employers and employees at the workplace.

Section 15 of the Act clearly requires the employer to ensure (as far as practicable) that the safety, health and welfare of all employees at the workplace are taken care of. This duty includes providing and maintaining a safe work environment, without risk to health, and providing adequate facilities for the welfare of the working people.

Thus, it is not just awareness. Ensuring a safe workplace for the workers is a legal requirement that is mandatory under the law. The penalty provided under the Act for violation of the duty is a maximum fine of RM50,000 or two years’imprisonment or both.

This mandatory requirement of the legislation would createawareness among the duty holders and it is also in tandemwith the ILO aim in using the World Day for Safety and Health at Work to raise awareness on the implementation of safe work practices and the role that occupational safety and health services should play. The roles include medium- to long-term preparedness, particularly the safety and health at work measures to be developed and incorporated into the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management systems and policies at the national and enterprise level.

Since the Act was implemented, one of its objectives remainsrelevant particularly in promoting the occupationalenvironment for all workers, which is adapted to their physiological and psychological needs. This simply means the law strictly gives its protection to the workers in terms of their physical safety as well as mental health while handling their tasks; so much so that during this alarming state of facing the risk of infections by the health workers, such safe work practices and preparedness of safety and health measures as commended by the ILO, need to be fully set in place.

The effort taken by the employer’s organisation to incorporate safety and health at work measures into the OSH management system is also a requirement under the law. The employer is obliged to make arrangements to ensure (so far as is practicable) safety and absence of risks to health, when the workers use or operate, handle, store and transport any plant and substances at the workplace.

Witnessing the tremendous efforts taken by the public and private hospitals since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was imposed by the government on March 18, 2020, it is evident that the necessary safety and health measures havebeen implemented as required by the law.

The frontline health workers are provided with complete PPEin handling their tasks, and safety procedures are adhered to strictly when they are attending to patients and testing thousands of samples daily.

Perhaps the COVID-19 Drive-Thru Screening Service offered by selected hospitals to the public is an effective safety and health at work measure implemented to reduce contact with others, detect positive cases early and help minimise the spread of COVID-19, fitting into the ILO meaningful phrase for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2020, “Stop the pandemic: Safety and health at work can save lives”.

-- BERNAMA

Assoc Prof Dr Rozanah Ab Rahman is with the School of Business and Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia.