Factories with more than 29 employees must have a registered nurse on site - Trade Minister

The Minister of Trade and Industries, Alan Kojo Kyeremanteng, has announced that it is required for factories and enterprises with an employee number of more than 29 to hire the services of a registered nurse.

According to the minister, even though the said requirement has over the past been ignored by factories and enterprises in Ghana, it is imperative for this directive to be adhered to owing to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

“Factories, enterprises with more than 29 employees are required to provide a registered nurse on site. If our factories and industries are not practising this measure, they are required to practice it now and that is the important message that we are carrying across today,” the minister said during this morning’s Minister’s Press Briefing where he was announcing some new restrictions for industries aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana.

Speaking about factories which has some of its employees testing positive for COVID-19, the minister said factories and industries must introduce an anti-stigmatization policy while underscoring that no employee should be sacked by their employer for testing positive for the virus.

“No employee should be discriminated, stigmatized against or be sacked because they have tested positive for COVID-19,” he said.

He also mentioned that employers must engage the services of psychologists who test positive for the virus for themselves and their families whiles also ensuring that workplace confidentiality is strictly observed.

For some time now Ghana has been recording outbreaks of COVID-19 in industrial workplaces. The biggest of such outbreak happened in May when one person who contracted the virus is reported to have infected over 500 workers at a fish processing factory in Tema.