World Health and Safety day message from the Occupational Safety board |28 April 2022
‘Let us work collaboratively to foster a positive safety and health culture’
“April 28 is a significant date that has historically been a day of remembrance and celebration. In 1996, the date was designated as a day to honor those who were injured on the job or died as a result of workplace accidents or injuries.
“The ILO designated this date as a day of awareness raising in 2003, to complement the commemorationof workers who died in workplace accidents and injuries. The message is unmistakable. Accidents, injuries, and fatalities on the job are all preventable. Prior to the May 1 celebrations honoring workers, let us remember that in order to achieve positive work outcomes, we must first work in a safe environment. To accomplish this, we must direct our efforts toward fostering a safety culture in all workplaces, both global and local. Regrettably, identifying an organisation with a negative safety culture is frequently much easier than identifying one with a positive safety culture.
“In Seychelles, both public and private organisations could use significant improvement in effecting positivesafety and health culture changes. Now, more than ever, we should celebrate the few organisations that have a positive safety culture and are actively working to create a safe working environment for their employees, promoting them as examples for others to follow.
“While establishing a positive safety culture may appear daunting, once established, the benefits are evident throughout the organisation, including increased productivity, increased engagement, decreased turnover, and a lower rate of accidents.Safety is no longer merely a legal requirement or a checkbox to be filled in the absence of any real commitment.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated, more than ever, the critical nature of safe and healthy work environments to ensure workplace productivity and continuity of business. Organisations must foster positive safety cultures by establishing an organisational vision for safety, involving employees at all levels, assigning responsibilities, modeling accountability, committing to continued growth, and publicising successes.
“This year's theme emphasises the shared responsibility of key stakeholders and encourages them to promote a preventive safety and health culture in order to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities related to preventing workplace deaths, injuries, and diseases. Let us work collaboratively to foster a positive safety and health culture.”