In just five months, six workers die in the workplace

Low job safety rates, but carelessness, have also been identified as factors that have contributed year-on-year to the number of dead people in the workplace.

According to statistics from January 1, 2018, six workers have been killed in their jobs.

The deaths and injuries of workers at workplaces have largely occurred in the construction sector, but the other sectors are not exempt.

On Thursday in Fushe Kosovo, the last victim was registered, which fell from an object where works were being done.

Independent Private Sector Trade Union Chairman Yusuf Azemi has told Telegrafi that the workers' situation is very serious.

“The workers' situation is very heavy, which no one is dealing with. Unfortunately, we had a case of death, today we do something more or less, and we definitely don't have any reasonable activity regarding the law and security of the workers: 8x1>, he said of Telegrafi, Azem.

He has said little is being done to increase workers' safety at work.

We as societies, as unions, as social mechanisms are not even doing the smallest job our workers deserve to become more for them. It is surprising, too, to us, on the part of the workers, that they themselves should be aware of and see where their jobs are working”, Azemi said.

Otherwise, Labour Inspectorate Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Labour and Social Health Basri Ibrahim had said that in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the preceding year, the number of inspections and fines has increased.

And we've had a total of 2950 inspections, of which we've pronounced 56 fines, that if we compare it to 2017 we have 600 inspections and 26 more fines”, he said of Telegrafi, Ibrahim.

He said that in the first quarter of 2018 we have 5 deaths in the workplace.

In the first quarter of 2018 we have 5 deaths in the workplace, two have occurred in the construction sector and for the first time so far there are three deaths caused by the current. While, during 2017, unfortunately, we have 19 deaths at the workplace, of which 14 were fatal, 5 have been recorded as natural deaths at the workplace”, he said.

Abraham has warned that there will be severity of measures from the Labour Inspectorate.

There will be more fines and more fines than last year. That's because we've tried all the other methods of raising awareness to our employer, but we're seeing that it's not giving us the sufficient result that we expect from our employer, so unfortunately we have to toughen the measures. We don't want to fine anyone, but rather that consciousness is going very slowly and the number of victims in the workplace isn't low, then we're forced to toughen the measures, because we believe it will be a measure for preventing other accidents at the work site”, he said.

Milaim Morina, from the Centre for Politics and Avokim, told Telegram that in implementing the Labour Law and the Law on Safety and Health at Work, there are many violations.

“Linked to the implementation of the Labour Law and the Law for Safety and Health at Work, many violations can be found. If we refer to safety at work, last year has been among the years in which most cases of injuries and deaths at work have been recorded. Over the past three years, more than 10 regulations have been drafted, whose purpose has been to improve the security situation at work, but so far no positive results have been noted. This is because employers have not created adequate conditions that are necessary for the safety of”, Morina said.

The inefficiency of the Labour Inspectorate, he says, is affecting the failure to implement the laws related to jobs.

Besides the lack of personal work equipment and environmental security at work, employers have failed to enable their employees to work which pose a risk to their lives. The labour inspector has not been efficient in doing his job, since with 48 inspectors they have never been able to inspect more than 8 thousand employers from 75 thousand active”, Morina said.

According to the Kosovo Statistics Agency's Work Force Survey in 2018, the construction sector has 12.9 percent of employees.

“Trade, production, construction and education employed more than half of the people employed in 2017. Trade employed 14.7 percent, continuing with production of 13.2 percent, constructionist 12.9 percent, and education 9.5 percent of those employed in Kosovo”, writes the ASS report, Telegrafi.

In addition to Kosovo's low employment rate, 23.1 percent of employed persons work in unstable jobs. /