ILOILO City – Western Visayas needs more safety and health practitioners in workplaces, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC).
Only 288 safety officers in the region were certified since January this year and only seven applications for Labor department-accredited/appointed safety officers were approved, said Melveen Melocoton, officer-in-charge of the OSHC’s Regional Extension Unit 6.
Anyone can become a safety officer as long as they have undergone the “40-hour basic training” and get accredited by the OSHC, said Melocoton.
Some people undergo the safety officer training “to gain credentials when they apply to become safety officers in their company,” he said.
On the other hand, the OSHC official said, appointed safety officers are employees organic to their company who were “trained and certified” by the Department of Labor and Employment.
Western Visayas has some 514 workplaces classified as “hazardous” and require a full-time safety officer, said Melocoton.
These include construction firms, laboratories with biological hazards, bakeries, and manufacturing companies, among others, he said.
“Highly hazardous” and even “nonhazardous” workplaces need safety officers, the OSHC said.
Among nonhazardous workplaces are offices, business process outsourcing companies and convenience stores, while petroleum depots and pyrotechnic factories are considered highly hazardous.
The OSHC is an attached agency of the Labor department.
Envisioned as the national authority for research and training on matters pertaining to safety and health at work, the OSHC provides the expertise and intervention mechanism to improve workplace conditions in the country.
In Western Visayas the OSHC has conducted orientations on occupational safety and health in 171 establishments with 583 clients since January this year. (With a report from PNA/PN)
