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IOSH magazine spoke to Haji Omar bin Mat Piah, director general of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health in Malaysia, about how a commitment to improving OSH in an economy at full throttle is steered by the national administration.
MASTER PLAN FOR
Malaysia T
he evolution of health and safety laws and culture is usually a gradual process, going hand in hand with economic and social progress. But the fast pace of economic change in Malaysia – on track to achieve its Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 of increasing incomes – has required an acceleration in the development of its safety policies and practices. Malaysia’s economic ambitions are matched by its OSH ambitions. The regulator, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), is clear that quality of life relies on quality of working life, and that prioritising people’s work wellbeing is a mainstay of productivity and economic success. As DOSH director general Haji Omar bin Mat Piah explains, this commitment to improving OSH is led from the very top. ‘Early last year, the prime minister launched our national policy for OSH,’ explains Omar. ‘To have the policy signed off by him was a big achievement in terms of promoting the preventive culture we want to inculcate.’ But with a legislative framework still in development, and with hard-to-reach small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounting for more than 90% of businesses,
there are real challenges in gaining the buy-in needed to ensure employers see investment in health and safety as an essential ingredient in their success.
Preventive culture DOSH is clear-sighted about its role in supporting Malaysia’s economic development, and in recent years it has set out its aims and expectations in ‘Master Plans’ – five yearplans, each with a theme or focus, which detail OSH objectives and measurements of success. Previous Master Plans have concentrated on ownership and self-regulation. The current plan, which was launched in 2016 and concludes on 31 December this year, has sought to bring about a ‘preventive culture’. The plan contains three key objectives: to reduce the rate of work-related deaths by 10%, reduce the rate of occupational accidents by 10% and increase reporting of occupational diseases by 30%. ‘The results of the current Master Plan are yet to be fully evaluated,’ explains Omar, ‘but we monitor results against each objective and report to the minister at the end of every year, and we are making progress.’ Omar is aware that, however effective its activities, DOSH can’t drive change on
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