THE STAR, may 20th, 2002 - PORT workers will be required to take safety courses before being allowed to work, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn said.

He said that while the rate of accidents at the workplace in general has decreased since 1995, the number of such mishaps taking place in ports are high.

The total number of accidents in the work place has decreased significantly from 125,000 cases in 1995 to 92,000 in 2001.

Twenty per cent of last year's reports came from the ports.

"To have over 18,000 accidents coming from one industry is quite a high number.

"We will be enforcing more rigidly on port workers to attend safety courses before being allowed to work," Fong said.

He said his ministry view accidents at ports seriously because in workers there handled chemicals and hazardous materials.

Fong told reporters this after launching Westport's sixth annual safety and health week campaign in Port Klang last week.

He said his ministry would be introducing courses on working in closed environments such as manholes, the proper way of handling dangerous goods and the importance of teamwork.

"By knowing the basic of safety, it can actually improve the working environment, which will lead to increased productivity," said Fong.

In the port industry, he said it was important that everyone looked out for one another as handling port machinery can be dangerous and one mistake could injure many people.

He said Westport's Safety, Health and Environment (SHE} Committee had developed activities such as hands-on training for operational staff on rescue operations both in the water and land, fire prevention drills, simulation exercise and activation of fire protection equipment for the staff.