KOTA KINABALU: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) and the Sabah Public Works Department (PWD) will jointly hold a seminar on occupational safety and health (OSH) at confined workplaces at the PWD multipurpose hall in Sembulan, here, on Jan 15 next year. Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Infrastructure Development Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who announced this, said the seminar is part of the effort to constantly instil OSH among people in the State. This is towards making safety at workplaces a culture among people in Sabah, he said.
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"We welcome such a seminar and programme organised by Niosh, which is meant to increase public awareness on the importance of safety and health at workplaces…because there are also incidences of accidents at workplaces in the State," he told a press conference held in conjunction with a courtesy visit by Niosh Chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye at his Ministry's office in Sembulan, Thursday. Lee, meanwhile, said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) Sabah's statistics showed there were 381 industrial accident cases reported in the State in the first six months of this year.
For the whole of last year, he said, 970 such cases were recorded."In the whole country, there were 35,898 cases recorded between January and June this year. In the same period last year, there were 20,418 cases," he said, adding most of these incidences were reported at construction, plantation and oil and gas sites.
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Lee also announced that Niosh plans to open a new branch in Tawau, saying presently, the institute has branches in Labuan and Sandakan. In another development, Lee said the Department of Occupational Safety and Health is currently investigating last Thursday's scaffolding collapse at Inanam town.
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Five vehicles were damaged when a scaffolding from a five-storey building under construction near Milimewa Supermarket in Inanam here collapsed that day, but fortunately nobody was injured.Picture caption: Pairin (third right) with Lee during the courtesy call.