Qatar- QU marks work safety, health day

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Doha: Qatar University (QU) recently marked the World Day for Safety and Health at Work to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. Marked on April 28 annually, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries. The World Day for Safety and Health at Work theme for 2021 as set by the International Labour Organization is ‘Anticipate, prepare and respond to crises and invest now in resilient OHS systems.' The theme acknowledges the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on work and the importance of building an effective, resilient, and adaptable WHS framework. Abdul Hadi Al Hajri, Acting Head of the Health and Safety Department, said, 'The International Day for Safety and Health at Work is an international campaign launched by the International Labor Organization every year to prevent work accidents. The International Labor Organization celebrated the World Day for Safety and Health event at work for the first time. In 2003, the organization chose this day, which corresponds to the memory of the victims of occupational accidents in 1996. 'We at Qatar University are participating with the international community in celebrating this day, which reflects the university's commitment to providing a safe and sound work and the academic environment by making the necessary efforts, developing plans and programmes that deal with preparing for and responding to crises, especially as the impact of the pandemic besets the whole world."  He said Supreme Committee has taken positive steps for Health and Safety at the university to enforce all laws, regulations, and guidelines issued by the competent authorities in the country and to provide all aid and guiding and directive steps that ensure the highest rate of achieving this.  'Accurate and effective, and by the grace of God, and according to the report of the Institutional Research and Analysis Department of the Office of Strategy and Development at the university regarding the satisfaction of faculty members, the precautionary measures taken at the university to confront the Covid pandemic obtained the highest satisfaction rate (84%) compared to the rest of the services, he added. In this context, the Public Facilities and Services Department organised a webinar entitled ‘Anticipate, Prepare and Response to Crises during the COVID-19 Pandemic.' Tina Balchandran and Ian Permbetron spoke in the seminar about the importance of preparing and responding to such crises.  MENAFN08052021000063011010ID1102048777