Approximately 54 000 claims have been approved by the National Insurance Department over a six year period.
This is according to the Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Senator Esther Byer Suckoo, who delivered the keynote address at a seminar entitled, “Safe Workplaces are Productive Workplaces” recently at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa.
She said that a poor health and safety record among various organisations would negatively impact on productivity as well as the morale of the employees.
“A poor safety and health culture would impact negatively, not only on productivity, but also on company morale which manifests in high levels of sick leave and absenteeism. The National Insurance Department has provided statistics that show that our
sickness claims places a strain on the national insurance and ultimately, on the national economy.”
Byer Suckoo said that this Department provided statistics that show the extent of the number of persons who have claimed sickness benefits.
“For the six year period from 2009 to 2014, our national insurance has approved sickness claims of 54 400 annually. That is approved claims. An average; that are not the ones that they didn’t approve for whatever reason – that is approved claims. The average is 54 000 – varied of course – from 51 a year to nearly 70 000 in another year, but over the six year period, an average of 54 000 claims and an average of 38 million dollars annually coming out of the National Insurance Fund, just on sickness benefits.
“One of the illnesses that people have claimed for is respiratory diseases and indeed a problem does exist in some quarters with respect to poor indoor air quality,” said the Minister of Labour.
“Now that is not desegregated for me into what the illnesses were. They have identified some of the main causes and they include respiratory illnesses, and we do know that as Mr. Walcott mentioned, we do have a lot of problems with
indoor air quality that does contribute to workers getting these respiratory illnesses, not in every case, but we do know that is one of the causes and of course some of the stranger injuries – some of which you do see in the workplace as well.” (PJT)