Addis Ababa (ILO News)- ILO provided capacity building training in occupational safety and health (OSH) to ten textile and garment industries in Ethiopia, based on a study that ILO made in order to identify possible gaps in OSH.
The study that ILO made revealed a very limited knowledge and availability of OSH and protective equipment in many of the industries. Furthermore, most of the factories do not have functional OSH system.
Based on the gaps identified by the study, ILO organized capacity building training during the month of October, 2016, to textile and garment industries in Oromia and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. The training targeted managers on one level, while on another level employees, OSH committee members were trained separately. Accordingly a total of 60 managers and 73 occupational safety and health committee members from Ayka, Alemeda, Arvind and BeConnected and Maa Garment Textile and Garment industries were trained.
The capacity building exercise, which was coordinated by the ILO project on Improving Industrial Relations for Decent Work and Sustainable Textile and Garment Industry in Ethiopia, aimed at establishing and strengthening OSH management system involving workers and managers. As a follow up support to the factories, ILO agreed to provide technical support to the factories to help them strengthen and establish OSH committees and system in the organization which is required by the Ethiopian government under the Labour Law Labor Proclamation No. 377/2003.
The project on Improving Industrial Relations for Decent Work and Sustainable Textile and Garment Industry in Ethiopia, aims to contribute to the development of socially sustainable textile and garment industry in line with Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II). For this purpose, the project will work at national, regional and factory levels to improve industrial relations, working conditions and productivity.
