FIRST WORKING MEETING RELATED TO OHS PROJECT - STRUMICA

2/19/2016
 
Caption 1. Participants on the working meeting

On 19.2.2016 in Strumica, the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia in cooperation with the Macedonian Occupational Safety and Health Association (MOSHA), held a press conference and a working meeting with the social partners, civil society organizations, media, representatives from relevant sectors and other stakeholders in the region within the frameworks of the project “Strengthening the partnership of civil society and state institutions in the creation and promotion of the right to safe and healthy working environment - Basic human right".

Before the meeting a press conference was held on which a statement was given by the Advisor to the President of CCM on projects and EU integrations, M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska, and the representative of MOSHA, Fatmir Saracini.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia in cooperation with the Macedonian Occupational Safety and Health Association (MOSHA), in Strumica held the first out of 10 working meetings in the framewoerk of the project which aims to strengthen the partnership between civil society organizations, state institutions in terms of achieving a safe and healthy working environment. Companies must invest in OHS. The results of these investments show that improved working conditions increase the profitability of the company. For this purpose, questionnaires for the workers and OHS representatives have been prepared. The goal was to see how workers are familiar with the new law amendments and the work of the trade union representative, while union officials had to respond to what extent the law is being respect and implemented in the enterprises"- said M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska.

 "We expect the project to influence the improvement of cooperation with NGOs, with workers and employers as well as to raise public awareness on the importance of safety at work. We have had a project that had been lasting for 5 years where certain companies received grants to see whether such investment is an expense or an investment. What was concluded was that in the companies that have been investing on OHS matter their reputation, the working conditions were improved and also noted increased profit,"- emphasized Fatmir Saracini.

The meeting was opened by the project coordinator, Vesna Ristovska, which presented the goals of the project and project activities.

Furthermore Danilea Indova, an expert on biodiversity has a presentation on the OHS Law with emphasis on the role of shop stewards / OHS representatives.

The results of the research and analysis of the questionnaires as well as problems and challenges that workers are facing with, were presented by Vasil Gligorov, CCM representative, RTUO Strumica and Zorka Andova, TU coordinator, RTUO Radovish.

As a last item on the agenda was presentation of the conclusions of the meeting with emphasis on the conclusion that companies which have established union, the OHS representatives are able to perform OHS duties and that the employees are familiar with the basic principles and provisions contained in the OHS Law. Regarding the OHS statement and risk assessment all present agree that are implemented in the companies from the economy, were most of the analyzes were conducted. Regarding the possibility of the employees to contact the shop stewards / OHS representatives, was concluded that a number of employees know where to refer when having certain problem, however, they do not submit complaints concerning OHS. As a conclusion was that employees themselves do not take necessary steps to submit certain complaints, but often they have just a conversation between themselves.

As a general conclusion of the working meeting was that in companies where workers are union members, there are better conditions for safe and healthy working environment.