Mwanza — THE Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) has trained over 800 employers and leaders of the Tanzania Union of Government and Health Employees (TUGHE).
The training was the implementation of its core duty of raising understanding on issues of safety and health at workplaces among Tanzanians.
Apart from raising awareness over safety and health matters at workplaces, OSHA also enforces the law on safety and health at workplaces, doing various research on such issues and advising the government to formulate better policies accordingly.
Authority's core duties are meant to protect the country's labour force, thus enabling various economic activities to be done in a safe environment.
During the training in Mwanza for employers and TUGHE leaders over the weekend the OSHA focused on building an understanding of the law guiding safety and health at workplaces.
Dr Jerome Materu, OSHA medical manager, gave an overview of diseases workers suffer at workplaces and efforts made by the authority to address them, including ensuring that workers get medical check-ups.
Dr Materu appealed to all employers in the country to effectively use the training opportunity and consultancy offered by the OSHA to improve safety and health systems at workplaces.
"Basically, we, OSHA, have continued providing education on safety and health at workplaces in order to empower our stakeholders to effectively implement the law and various guidelines to improve the workplace environment and ultimately increase productivity," he said.
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He added: "Let me ask employers to utilize these training opportunities to help them build strong systems for safety and health at workplaces.
Commenting, TUGHE's education officer Nsubisi Mwasandende said: "My fellow participants and I are lucky to undergo this training through which we have learned many things to consider in making the workplaces safe."
He said participants got an understanding of the importance of safety and health committees at workplaces, risks and various challenges, and how to tackle them.
"So, we thank the OSHA for this good training. But, we ask it to up inspection at workplaces and give advice to employers," he said.
Another participant, Ms Jackline Ngowi, also expressed her feelings over the training, saying all topics were beneficial to them.
