MELAKA: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) has reminded that employers have the responsibility to continuously equip their staff with information, instruction and training on safety measures at workplace, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514).
To assist in that, Niosh has 18 regional offices and branches nationwide, offering 111 programmes and 109 short courses recognised by the Human Resources Development Fund.
Its deputy chairman K. Gunasegaran said the institute was committed to being the top centre of excellence in occupational health and safety by creating better awareness.
“Accidents can be prevented simply by prioritising safety in all areas.
“Niosh has always taken the responsibility to ensure that safety and health take precedence at workplaces,” he said.
Gunasegaran said Niosh hoped to ensure that employees were sufficiently trained in the tasks in line with the Act.
He said the maintenance of safety at workplace was usually carried out by competent persons, site safety supervisors and chemical health risks assessors.
These experts specifically serve to assist the authorities to ensure their workplaces are in compliance with the relevant legal requirements under the Act.
He said Niosh trained about 6,595 safety and health officers and 4,640 site safety supervisors between January 2016 and November 2018.
In addition, Niosh also offers training such as working at heights, scaffolding, in confined space, for tower crane operator, rigging and slinging, and many other programmes to improve safety especially at construction sites.
There are also skills and competence-based courses carried out to raise awareness in order to shape the attitude and work culture of employees, he said.
Gunasegaran added that Niosh had trained over 583,019 employees so far to prepare them on basic safety hazards, especially at construction sites.
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