Contractors call for review of law on health and safety

Contractors are asking for an amendment of the Factories, Offices and Shop Act, to cover the construction sector to ensure workplace safety.

The contractors said the law as it presently stands, is limited; as it does not cover construction and construction sites, which are one of the risky working environments.

To this end, the Ghana Contractors Association Council (GCAC), with support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, has embarked on a campaign with the goal of causing an amendment to the law.

The Council commissioned consultants to carry out a study into the Act in order to identify the flaws and come out with recommendations.

At a sensitization workshop to brief Executives of GCAC on their recommendations, one of the Consultants, Ayisi Addo, said the existing Act that regulates occupational health and safety has a lot of challenges that requires an amendment to make it relevant to current trends.

He mentioned the lack of clarity, limited scope of the Act, and outdated penalties as some of the shortfalls.

Tawia Akyea, a consultant, said the name of the Act itself needs to be changed, saying the regulations enforcing health and safety are fragmented, making enforcement difficult.

He proposed that the current Act be replaced with a more comprehensive law that covers every sector, so that occupational health and safety can be properly enforced.

Chairman of the Ghana Contractors Association Council, Mr. Rockson Dogbegah, commended the consultants for their work, and said the Council was going to engage with stakeholders to this effect.

He noted that occupational health and safety has assumed such importance globally, that Ghana needs to act quickly to put in place a comprehensive law that is in tune with current trends.

He also urged government to ratify the International Labour Organisation Convention on Occupational Health and Safety, as he believes that ratifying the Convention will compel government to quickly amend the existing law to reflect best practices.

Dr. Stephen Lomotey of the Factories Inspectorate Department commended the contractors for the initiative and said moves were underway to review the law and urged the GCAC to act quickly, so that their inputs were captured in the review process.