The present rate of work-related fatalities are unacceptable, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairperson Lee Lam Thye stressed today.

He said that while there was a significant decline in industrial accidents reported to Socso and the Labour Department since 1995, it is still not up to par with the benchmark of developed countries.

The average number of industrial accidents was 17 per 1,000 workers in 1995 but dwindled to 6.7 last year. The average for developed countries, according to Lee, was three to four accidents per 1,000 workers.

"Companies should regard occupational safety and health as part of their corporate responsibility and must allocate yearly budget for safety training to help prevent work-related accidents," Bernama quoted him as saying.

Lee stressed that training programmes are essential in achieving the goal of a safe workplace.

"An accident-free environment helps the company to save and increase the organisation's productivity and profitability. Companies must not profit at the expense of safety because if accidents occur, lives may be lost and productivity will be affected," he said.

Train doctors

Lee also lamented that only 13 per cent of over 4,000 Socso panel doctors currently were trained in occupational health.

Meanwhile, Socso statistics showed that only a minuscule amount of compensated cases were related with occupational diseases.

"These figures show a lack of awareness on occupational diseases among medical practitioners and the industries," he said.

Lee also called for more efforts to enhance doctor's knowledge on occupational safety, as the present ratio of Occupational Health Doctor (OHD) per working population in Malaysia was only one to 46,000 workers.