A spate of high profile fires has drawn attention to Egypt'sOccupational Health & Safety system, where all is not as it seems.
It was a typical day at the factory for Ragab when he asked a forklift operator to raise him up to the roof. The driver agreed and the young man held onto the forks as he ascended. A few meters up, his hands slipped and he fell to his death. The driver was fired for failing to comply with safety procedures while Ragab left behind a family without a father.
Ragab is just one among thousands of Egyptian workers who suffer injury and even death as a result of often-preventable occupational hazards. In 2003, the International Labor Organization (ILO) recorded 26,884 non-fatal injuries and 110 fatalities in Egypt, down from 63,050 and 222 respectively in 1992. But given a business culture that remains largely unconcerned with workplace safety, it is likely that a large number of injuries go unreported.
Beyond the human cost of these tragedies, the economic cost is significant --destroyed stock and property, lost productivity and the resulting impact on shareholder confidence, all take their toll on business operations.
In Egypt, the last 12 months alone saw several high-profile fires that caused the death of dozens, injury of countless more and damage in the millions of pounds.
In February, a fire broke out at the Chemicals and Pesticides Company in Kafr El Zayat burning off 60 tons of Sulfur powder and leaving 20 hospitalized. Oriental Weavers experienced its second fire in less than four months, resulting in LE 20 million worth of damage and the injury of 67 workers -- the first fire in October cost the company LE 50 million in damages. In August, a blaze erupted in a lecture hall at Al-Azhar University in Zagazig; three students were killed and 200 more injured as the panicked students exited the building via a narrow staircase.
The significant number of regularly occurring incidents gives the impression that Egypt lacks Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation, but the truth is more complex. Legislation and regulatory structures are in place, but implementation is limited and enforcement is dwindling while the number of new businesses rises. Socially, Egypt lacks a business culture that fosters employee safety and a broad awareness across different segments of society about OHS.
The Legislative System
Legislation covering worker's rights has existed since 1981 but it has only recently undergone amendments. Labor Law Number 12 of 2003 was introduced to better workplace safety through the introduction of stricter guidelines and increased penalties for breaches of the law.
Previous laws lacked specificity regarding implementation measures and utilized an outdated penalty system. Abd El-Hamid Kotb Bilal, a work relationships consultant and lawyer, explains that the new law is much harder on violators, while the fine which used to be LE 50 now goes as high as LE 10,000, in addition to an increase in the possible prison sentence from its previous 1-8 months, to a maximum of three years.
According to Bilal, the Labor Law regulates the procedures and systems implementing OHS and is consistent with international standards that Egypt as a member of the ILO since 1938 is obliged to follow.
"From the 168 agreements, there were 26 treaties for international OHS standards, Egypt signed 15 of them. The labor law number 12 for 2003 [took into consideration] that all the law's legislations include everything that was mentioned in those agreements, so that after that the validation process is easy," explains Bilal.
Under the Labor Law, all factories and public establishments are required to have a committee responsible for OHS that includes management and specialist staff. This committee is responsible for monitoring OHS implementation measures and procedures as well as ensuring staff are trained regularly.
Hashem explains that the committee is a must for any organization that has more than 50 workers: "The committee is formed of the CEO or the owner of the organization, safety specialist and safety technician, members of committees, heads of sectors, a number of representative workers, fire fighting head (if available) and the doctor of the institute (if available). The role of this committee is to form a document for the institute and steps and a plan on to how to achieve occupational health and safety," he says.
In addition to the committee, an inspector from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration in the Ministry of Manpower is required to periodically check on the organization to ensure it is in compliance with the Labor Law.
The legislation also makes training for the committee compulsory. This training is broken into two parts: primary and advanced training. NIOSH is responsible for the advanced training, while primary training is conducted by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Organizations that fail to complete the training are considered in violation of the Labor Law and the fine or prison sentence is applied. The training itself covers a range of issues including fire fighting and prevention, first aid programs and the planning and adaptation of the latest OHS issues into the work setting.
The role of NIOSH extends beyond training; the organization is a "research, services and training center," says Hashem, which focuses more broadly on the work environment to detect problems and propose solutions to workplace safety issues -- a role comparable to that of a consultant.
The Labor Law is not just for factories, clearly stating that it applies to all public buildings, including universities and theaters. It does not even differentiate between the government and private sector in implementation. "It is the only law in Egypt that has no exceptions at all and is applied to all establishments," Hashem says.
Beyond this, the Labor Law does not just target management and owners of organizations, but also places culpability on individual workers. According to the law, as long as workers have been trained in occupational safety and safety instructions are displayed in the work place employers have the right to fire a worker without severance package or compensation if that worker causes a severe accident.
Despite its best intentions, the legislation has failed to stop all preventable accidents. Beyond the fire at Al-Ahzar, the tragic sinking of the 35-year-old Al-Salam 98 ferry in 2006, which cost the lives of 1,000 people, showed egregious neglect to safety standards passenger capacity was overloaded by more than 25 percent and it was sailing on forged documents that covered up a shortage to safety equipment, including lifeboats. Even the modern CityStars has had problems: In November 2007, an electric spark caused a fire in a restaurant on the sixth floor; 20 were injured and one worker died before the building was evacuated.
So with laws present and accidents continually reoccurring, where does it all go wrong? Bilal puts it bluntly: "Our problem is the lack of safety culture in both private and public sectors' leaders."
Lack of Awareness in Society
Leaders aside, a lack of basic safety awareness is widespread across almost all of Egyptian society. OHS is rarely taught in schools or universities and most people lack even basic knowledge on how to deal with fires, let alone larger emergencies.
Consider the fire at Al-Azhar University, says Hashem, it is evident that the fire arose because "the girls [who died] did not have the occupational health and safety culture and there is no awareness. This is due to lack of awareness and ignorance of the amount of danger that could happen and it resulted in four people dying." Hashem believes that had someone in Al-Azhar University known that the electric spark could have been avoided by cutting off electricity "what happened wouldn't have happened and this is what we call for: that the occupational health and safety culture is obligatorily taught in schools so that kids understand health and safety what hazards are and how to prevent them [] It is crucial to spread safety and health culture and it should begin with the education," she says.
The incident is not isolated. Bilal says a lack of public awareness about safety issues set the stage for the fire at the Beni Suef cultural palace during the 15th Theater Club Festival, which killed 46 people including prominent critics and writers. The room where the fire occurred was designed to fit a maximum of 70 people, but during the performance was host to an audience of 140.
A toppled candle set fire to the walls, which were covered in spray-painted burlap for a performance. The fire then spread down the hallway to a kitchenette. There, large butane gas canisters exploded; heat from the blaze then blew up freon gas tanks in air conditioners, sending shrapnel everywhere.
While these examples are mass tragedies, even one's home is at risk.
"Unfortunately people's perception of safety is still backwards. In your house you need occupational health and safety, and the design of our houses in Egypt lack the basics of safety it doesn't have three-socket plugs for electricity, and until now it is only two-socket," says Bilal.
An informal survey of 20 people from different ages and backgrounds illustrated this significant lack of awareness. Asked questions about basic emergency and safety measures, the respondents got the answers mostly wrong or only partially correct. Nearly all the participants had not studied OHS in school or on the job those who had received training predominately worked for multinational companies. Answers about electrical fires showed that half the participants did not know how to put them out or thought water could be used on the fire. Only four of the people surveyed knew that in the case of a gas leak the gas source could be closed.
Educational System/Training
The lack of basic knowledge about OHS issues extends into the educational sector with serious ramifications: Few engineering students are taught how to design buildings that comply with modern safety standards.
Engineer Nagwan Mohamed, a fresh graduate from Ain Shams University, explains that although she took a course in safety, the curriculum did not teach modern standards. She learned current safety guidelines training in an engineering office. "The fire staircase for instance was never mentioned to us before, now I know from my work experience that we can't design a public building without emergency staircases and exits; we weren't taught that back in university," she says.
Bilal explains that the fire in Beni Suef's cultural center highlights the lack of safety design in building construction: The doors of the center opened to the inside, while safety measures require public buildings to have doors that open to the outside. The building also hadn't been designed to host the large number of people using it.
Similarly, the Al-Azhar University staircase was not equipped to handle the number of people in the building, despite legislation requiring public buildings have enough emergency exits to match building capacity. The three auditoriums located on the fifth floor held 1,500 students, all of whom had to descend a single 1.5-meter-wide staircase to escape the blaze.
"[T]he engineers who designed this building didn't know these standards. Until now, engineering faculties did not teach safety programs and engineering conditions for designing buildings that take into consideration safety measures," says Bilal, adding that engineers are not usually taught what they need to know on safety design. "The Central Bank's building had a steel staircase around it that disfigured the way the building looks. Why did they build it? Because the engineer who designed this building put a meeting room on the fifth floor that holds 700 people, but had not put in an emergency exit," he adds.
Bilal also points out that university graduates with OHS knowledge would be more employable. "If [OHS] is taught in universities there will be plenty of employment opportunities for these people [] if they taught this in universities when they graduate, the establishments would be able to find them. But they hire them then train them, and this takes time. If they had taken the theoretical information in university when they graduate [then] you can only build on the information they already have."
The Role of Management
Workers receive training, in theory, but many OHS incidents occur because of a lack of awareness or negligent attitude toward workplace safety.
The training methodology typically it is entirely theoretical, as opposed to on-the-job -- contributes to this attitude, which is then reinforced by a lack of emphasis on the importance of OHS by management or owners. Workers tend to take OHS issues lightly, not making the connection between using their training and reducing the chance of serious injury.
Hashem explains that NIOSH often gets lower-level employees rather than leadership at its training sessions, but that it is management who really needs the training because they are more influential within the organization. "The managers should be trained, the owners and the CEOs, because they are the ones who put [in place] the rules. The worker will follow if he feels the establishment cares enough for him. The law forces the worker to follow the rules or else he is fined and could be fired," she says. Bilal agrees, saying "most accidents revealed the lack of safety awareness, especially in governmental leadership and agencies."
No Enforcement
At the root of these issues is a simple truth: The law exists, but very little is done to enforce it. Implementation of safety standards and supervision of the management or owners is lagging behind as businesses growth skyrockets.
By law, inspections should be carried out periodically, but in reality business premises seldom receive visits from inspectors and the visits themselves are often treated as more of a formality than an inspection.
Bilal explains that the number of specialized inspectors in the Ministry of Manpower was about 500 in 1996; now he estimates 350 or 400. The dwindling numbers stem from a government freeze on hiring, meaning that as inspectors leave their post or retire, they are not being replaced.
With the number of inspectors going down, the immensity of their task is jarring. The Central Agency for Public Mobility and Statistics' 2006 estimation showed that there were 323,144 government buildings and 11,022,673 private sector buildings throughout Egypt, up 12% and 26% respectively from 1996. This means that if each building were to be inspected once, the 350 inspectors would have to view 88.8 buildings a day, every day, for a year. Inspectors are supposed to examine all establishments with more than 50 employees, but even so, they could never cover the ground needed to ensure all organizations are complying with safety standards.
"Can you imagine that this number of inspectors is capable of inspecting all the establishments in Egypt, both public and private, agricultural, land, sea and air transportation?" Bilal says.
The head of the Workers' Syndicate for the Tenth of Ramadan, engineer Magdy Sharara says that almost 50% of the companies in his area only have OHS committees in theory, that the committee carries out no real function. "What happens is that private companies can't be bothered to pay LE 1,000 for a guy just to be the health and safety specialist. So they just have any current employee written down as the specialist on paper, but he doesn't actually do anything," explains Sharara. The outlook on inspectors is equally bleak. According to Sharara, for the 1,400 organizations in the Tenth of Ramadan City, there are only four inspectors.
He adds that some companies do have functioning committees, but it is typically multinationals that have imported internal OHS standards from their parent company or head office. Even in multinational firms, management is working against the tide of culture, having to force employees to attend safety training, including trainings external to the company and regularly conducting safety drills to maintain a level of awareness about OHS issues.
"The problem now is that the law is good and the punishment is strict but the inspecting body's number is relative to the existing establishments and so the law isn't fully implemented. But of course the law is different now than before and the owner of the business is scared of the implementation of the punishment so this makes a difference," says Mohamed Reda, head of machines maintenance at the National Company for Glass and secretary general of the Workers' Syndicate for the Tenth of Ramadan. He agrees with Sharara, saying he believes it likely that only 30% of companies have a functioning committee. "At our factory we [have a committee] and we meet monthly. Although there should be an industrial safety committee by the Ministry of Manpower but there isn't most of the time."
According to Bilal rulings against companies have increased and prison sentences have been handed down. Bilal relates the instance of a small business that was fined with LE 45,000 because they repeatedly violated the law. Crediting NIOSH for raising awareness and encouraging proactive management, Bilal admits that problems remain.
"The numbers of injuries and fatalities has decreased. When the law was issued people discovered how strict it was and they acted immediately [in applying the new standards] and didn't wait to act until after its implementation or until they get fined," says Bilal.
Slowly But Surely
There is an increase in the number of training courses being provided by private sector companies. Aly Roushdy, Settec Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager, says, "In the past we have noticed that it's mainly multinational firms who focus on fire fighting and safety issues. Also, many companies are ordering something for the first time, which is the Thermo Graph Inspection and the companies that deal with insurance companies abroad constantly require it because it is obligatory. The mother companies for multinationals often require this, for insurance, and now multinational companies here require it; this is a new trend. HSE training is now taking up a big part of our overall training."
Hashem explains that due to the improved law and growing concern with the matter of safety, NIOSH's income has increased from the fiscal year 2004-2005's LE 333,000 to LE 720,000 for the fiscal year 2006-2007. "People are becoming more and more concerned, especially those dealing with multinationals because they follow international standards and specifications and they want a high quality product that is also accident-free. So now as we deal more in importing and we deal with multinationals, the culture is beginning to improve," says Hashem.
Following the Rules?
In the short term, expenditure on OHS may seem like an unnecessary business cost, but in the medium to long-term it can prove to be a worthy investment. Major OHS incidents result not only in expensive damage to assets and property, financial costs arising from compensation and treatment of injured staff and lost productivity through reduced facilities and manpower, but also the flow on effects into bad public relations, lost sales and decreased investor, employee and shareholder confidence.
"Cutting safety costs in reality costs more, because the cost of treating an injured worker is no less than $1,820 (LE 10,000) according to the World Health Organization. So how much would it cost you if occupational diseases occurred and people missed work," says Bilal.
Hashem agrees, saying that investing in OHS will result in increased revenues in the long term. "Any establishment that faces an accident incurs major losses. The fire that happened in Borg El-Arab's factory cost them LE 50 million. So any establishment that faces an accident can incur millions in losses, whereas if they had training for safety it would only cost a few thousand. So it is better to teach safety now and gain its benefits as opposed to waiting until an accident happens and then teach safety when they have already incurred losses," he says.
Despite the magnitude of the problem, the solution seems rather simple and direct; employ more inspectors to ensure implementation of the law, raise awareness of hazards and build a strong culture of safety through the education system. The groundwork has already been laid out and the law seems to be thorough and strict. The standards exist and the system is already planned; now it just needs to be up and running.
However, the training workers receive when and if they do get it is often taken lightly. Although they were usually taught the correct precautions and procedures, they often fail to follow them; either due to the management's negative attitude that OHS standards are just formalities, or the workers' lack of knowledge on the importance of following these standards. For everyone involved, this is clearly still a work in progress.
Aiming for Zero Accidents
With close to 37 million man-hours completed on the project, the hardhats of more than 5,000 construction workers were off to the American University in Cairo's (AUC) new campus project management team for its work to ensure a safer workplace.
Their aim was a zero-accident workplace, but the aspiration was marred by a single fatality and handful of minor injuries on a project that set an example for occupational health and safety (OHS) in Egypt.
Karl W. Anttila, CCM project director at Fluor International Ltd, the company responsible for the construction management and oversight of the project and Kim Joong, project manager at the contracting company Samsung / Samcrete JV, describe their efforts to promote OHS at AUC:
There have been a minimal number of accidents on the construction site of the new AUC campus. How many accidents have happened so far and how significant were they?
First, safety begins with the mindset of the owner and at the highest level of project management and moves downward through the organization to the individual worker. The mindset and the goal of all stakeholders in respect to safety must collectively be set very high to 'zero accidents.'
For a project this size, one that has maintained an average of more than 5,000 workers a day for the past twelve months and that has accumulated more than 36,913,490 man-hours worked, the safety record is quite good. However, unfortunately, our record is not unblemished. Since the beginning of the project in August 2004 we have had one fatality and three other serious lost-time accidents. We have had other incidents, which are considered minor and near-misses that are treated by our on-site medical doctors and emergency staff without loss-time.
A loss-time accident is defined by a worker being absent from and/or unavailable for work due to the incident. Accidents are generally classified into two categories: Ones involving loss-time of less-than three days of which we have had 18 incidents; and the more serious ones with a loss-time of more than four days of which we have had four.
On a big project like the new campus, what are the measures taken on-site to ensure occupational safety? Have the workers been trained especially for this project?
The owner and project management team set the standards by establishing safety as a priority on this project. This was done during the procurement stage and by requiring the contractor to provide a written Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) procedure manual, along with the resume of a trained professional safety manager and team. The HSE plan was reviewed and discussed in great detail during this process with the contractor. The contractor has designated management people responsible for safety within certain areas of the work. The emphasis of safety is continually stressed by being the first topic of business in the weekly construction meeting and by weekly safety walks by upper management with the site safety team. The owner's project management has a professional safety manager that augments and assists the contractor's safety team. The contractor has several hundred workers designated as safety personnel, wearing 'red hardhats', that are dedicated to watch and ensure the workers are complying with and utilizing proper safety equipment and techniques.
New workers attend a short Safety Orientation Program (SOP) on their first day of employment. This training is augmented with more specific training for skilled trades requiring additional safety training in orientations called Safety Induction Courses (SIC).
In the unlikely event of an accident, who takes the blame? If the worker has been proved negligent, are the other parties blamed as well or is it his own responsibility?
All levels of management are totally committed to ensuring the safety of the workers. The commitment to safety must be and is, a fundamental core issue for all construction workers irrespective of country, language, nationality or culture. There is a common bond and understanding that safety must be first in one's mind, if not, someone can be seriously injured or die. When an accident does occur and after the injured party has received the required assistance and the site has been made safe, an investigation is made to determine the facts of how and what happened. From the facts of the investigation the information necessary to improve the work processes is formed that can be used to mitigate future accidents in the form of 'lessons learned.' If disciplinary and or legal actions are warranted they will be dealt with as appropriate but finding fault is not the first concern or course of action. We want to understand the facts and learn from them so hopefully we can prevent it from happening again.
Some last words of advice?
The monies expended in accident prevention and training is a prudent investment in mitigating the potential increased cost associated with the direct and indirect cost of an accident and or loss of life, both in monetary terms and in moral obligation of providing a safe work place for its employees.
By Nadine El Sayed
© Business Today Egypt 2008
