ME accidents at work fatality rate among world's highest

According to organisers of the 1st Middle East Congress on Managing Safety in the Workplace, today's world does not accept that injury and death in the workplace simply "goes with the job."

"In workplaces driven by internal and customer deadlines and targets, getting the job done on time and within budget can be traded against worker safety," said congress director Chris Mullinger.

"But it has been estimated that 70 per cent of workplace accidents can be prevented if companies and organisations put in place proper safety control measures.

"Introduction of such measures is now an unavoidable responsibility of boards of directors to be good corporate citizens."

The Middle East Congress on Managing Safety in the Workplace (www.iirgulf.com/safety ) takes place in Dubai from 7 to 10 December 2003 and is attracting strategic level delegates from throughout the region.

Disturbing
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized the right of all people to just and favourable conditions of work.

Yet, it is estimated by the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva that workers suffer 270 million accidents at work every year with over 355,000 fatalities.

Combined with occupational diseases, the economic losses involved are the equivalent of 4 per cent of the entire world's gross national product (US$1,251,353 million). But, in terms of shattered families and communities, the damage can be incalculable.

Worldwide occupational accident statistics supplied by the ILO present a disturbing picture for several regions, including the Middle East.
While the fatality rate in established market economies is around 5.3 deaths per million people, in the Middle East the rate rises to 22.5 per million - a ratio only exceeded by Asia, excluding China and India.

According to Dr Jukka Takala, Director of the ILO's Safe Work Programme, when fatalities from occupational diseases are included, the global estimate for all work-related deaths is 1.1 million.

"The trends in both accidents and diseases are mixed," said Dr Takala. "In industrialized countries we have seen a clear decrease of serious injuries...in developing countries the trends are less favourable."

Safety culture
A better safety culture can, he believes, lead to the avoidance of many unnecessary and tragic deaths.

"Safety culture is a concept among safety professionals that can be considered to include various aspects of occupational safety and health, such as safety attitudes and behaviors.
"Safety management, auditing and safety mapping, for example, can be used to shape and strengthen safety cultures, while labour and factory inspection and occupational health services can play a major role."

Humanitarian concerns should be the driving force for reducing the numbers of deaths in the workplace.

But many safety institutions participating in the Middle East Congress also point out sound business reasons why companies and establishments should introduce and implement good safety management policies.

They include:
• Cost - there is a genuine business case - taking into account sickness absence; compensation claims and damage and disruption.
• Reputation - a key asset for a company or institution. The impact of a good safety management policy is not insignificant.
• Public scrutiny - the public take for granted good management of risk by companies and establishments.
• Directors' responsibilities - growing pressure to hold senior people accountable (in some countries this has led to the concept of "corporate manslaughter").
• Corporate governance - major companies must develop and publish a business risk management plan, including safety in the decision making process.
• Reporting - stakeholder expectations are rising for better performance reporting.