In support of the recently celebrated World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) conducted an online forum “Leveraging OSH Systems Through Positive Social Dialogue at Work” to discuss significant occupational safety and health (OSH) policies and challenges.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work is an annual celebration through the initiative of the International Labor Organization which aims to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally.

With the theme of the celebration, “Act Together to Build a Positive Safety and Health Culture,” the Department held the webinar-forum which tackled leveraging systemic OSH mechanism and measures responsive to the emerging dangers in the workplace.  Participants to the online forum were DSWD employees from the national and regional offices.

In his message during the activity, Undersecretary Adonis Sulit stressed the importance of adherence to the OSH law, not just for compliance purposes, but to make it a way of life in the workplace and at home.  He further said that the goal of establishing OSH policies in the Department is to “keep our people safe – our employees and our clients.”

To provide a discussion on strengthening OSH systems within the office management, the Department invited Dr. Maria Beatriz G. Villanueva from the Health Control Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC). Dr. Villanueva cited the employer’s critical role of ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for employees which would lead to decent and greater workforce productivity. Likewise, occupational risks or hazards must be identified to prevent any untoward incidents.

On the other hand, Occupational Environmental Health and Safety Consultant, Dr. Gerard Danielle K. Sio, provided tips and measures on helping employees achieve health and balance in the workplace through proper posture and basic exercise, up-keeping the physical body to the environment and nature of work – where workplace ergonomics shall be modified in accordance to the worker and not the other way around.

Meanwhile, to ensure the work-life balance among government workers, Director Shiela G. Acuna of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) discussed the implementation/adoption of the Alternative Work Arrangements (AWA) and Employee Support Mechanism in the Public Sector.  The AWA was one of the government initiatives to mitigate the health risk of the COVID-19 pandemic among  public servants.

The webinar forum is one of the initiatives of the Department in strengthening its OSH measures. 

OSH must always be practiced and new learnings on how to create a healthy environment must also be implemented in the workplace and even at home. ###