About 200 people gathered at the Workers Monument in Penang today to remember those who were killed or injured in the course of work. The gathering is a prelude to International Labour Day which falls o­n May 1.

Organised by the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (Penang division), the gathering - dubbed the 'Workers Day Memorial' - was held at a monument constructed in memory of some 30 workers who died during the construction of the Penang bridge.

The monument, situated near the toll plaza o­n the Prai end of the bridge, was funded by the state government.

Among those present were Penang state executive councillor Dr Toh Kin Woon, Penang MTUC president Abdul Razak Hamid, National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industry Workers executive secretary Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud and Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Dr Rohana Ariffin.

Rising incidents

MTUC Penang health and safety commitee chairperson N Balakrishnan said workers who were permanently "maimed, killed or diseased" by uncontrolled hazardous working conditions were not remembered by the public.

"Workers are nation builders and patriots, but when they are killed or maimed, they are forgotten," he said in his speech.

"Workers Memorial Day remembers them all. It is part of the overall campaign to make workplaces safer and to eliminate deaths, injuries and illness."

He said an average of 1,000 deaths occur at work places every year, or an average of four cases per day. Citing statistics from the Social Security Organisation, he said there were 95,006 industrial accidents in 2000.

This was an increase of about 3.18 percent over the previous year. There were about 1,004 deaths due to accidents at the work place in 2000, an increase of about nine percent compared to 1999.

Tuberculosis cases

Balakrishnan also said upper limb injuries have accounted for an average of 37,168 cases per year for the last seven years. There has also been a rising number of tuberculosis cases.

"The average occurance was about 33 cases per year for the last six years. The figure was 367 cases in 2000 alone. This works out to an increase of about 11 times," he said.

For the last seven years, an average of 636 cases had been reported annually related to diseases contracted at the work place.

Each year, about 1,000 workers are killed in work places. This does not include deaths due to traffic accidents while workers are commuting to work.

Toh, a Gerakan leader, said the fight for workers' rights was not an easy task and hundreds have sacrificed their freedom for this cause.

"Although accidents in the workplace seem to have decreased, there may be changes in the nature of accidents which are not represented in our statistics," he added.

' Useless leaders'

Abdul Razak, meanwhile, encouraged membership in unions to enhance the status of workers at all levels.

He said unions were different from political parties which struggled solely for the interests of a certain race or ideology.

He told workers to join unions in order to obviate leaders who failed to carry out their duties efficiently.

"If you do not want to join unions because there are useless leaders or those who are o­nly interested in promoting themselves, then you should join unions to bring them down," he said.

"Those who want to be leaders must lead, not o­nly make empty promises. They must not just sit at the top and not know what is happening at the grassroots," he stressed in an obvious reference to the leadership crisis in the union involving its president Senator Zainal Rampak.

Zainal plunged the Congress - which boasts a 50,000-strong membership- into a crisis recently when he refused to step down despite promising his deputy Mohd Shafie BP Mammal otherwise.