Sonam Geley Dorjee

Self Introduction
Name: Sonam Geley Dorjee

Title/Designation: Engineer (Mechanical)
Division: Labour Protection DivisionDepartment: Department of Labour
Organization: Ministry of Labour and Human Resources(MoLHR)
Country: BhutanCurrent Task:


inspecting enterprises (by inspectors empowered by law), to educate, inform and advise employers on the content andmeaning of laws, encourage self-compliance and, if necessary, gain compliance through enforcement measures.

Brief introduction of my Department

Department of Labour is the regulatory body

Implementing Labour and Employment Act of Bhutan, 2007 and its
regulations (Custodian)Service is limited to approval of Foreign Workers

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LABOUR PROTECTION DIVISIONLABOUR RELATION DIVISION

To Protect, Prevent and Improve theworking conditions and environment.

Promoting and ensuring harmony at thework place

MandateSOCIAL PROTECTION DIVISION

To promote and ensure social
protection of the employees.

FOREIGN WORKERS DIVSION

Assessing the need of Foreign Workers
and providing the approval accordingly.

Principles of Labour Protection Division

We stand for boththe employer andemployees.

We avoid overregulation andunder regulation(middle path)

We focus on boththe enforcement
and education.

Green marketing is a practicewhereby companies seek to go
above and beyond.

2020

Statistics of Accident

Source: Department’s annual report2021-2022

These are reported accident to Department of Labour

Graph showing accident by type of cause of accident (20212022)

Graph showing accident by type of major sector (2021-2022)

Data collection methods for statistics• Data collection methods used to collect or obtain data are direct observation andpersonal interviews (employees and employers).
• Earlier, the Labour Inspectors used to manually collect data on labour-related topics
on account of visits to workplaces and our inspection actions, and then, are stored
manually in our database (maintained in google sheet).

• Now, we use mobile electronic devices with internet services to collect data and it isautomatically stored into databases (Labour Administration System – this system waslaunched on June 2022).

Safety and Health related Laws andRegulations
1. Chapter IX of Labour and Employment Act of Bhutan, 2007;

2. Regulation on Occupational Health and Safety for Construction Industry, 2022 [2nd Edition];
3. Regulation on Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare, 2022 [2nd Edition];
4. Guidelines on Assessment and Evaluation on Occupational Health and Safety Practice atWorkplace, 2017
5. Risk Assessment Guidelines 2018

Routine Inspection is aimed to anticipate andLabour Inspection Systemprevent problems by informing workers andemployer on the content of the law, advisingthem on how to comply and if necessary,

securing compliance with the Act and its
Regulations through enforcement. Routine visits
normally cover the full range of matters to beinspected.
Special Inspection is unplanned and is based oncomplaints and specific issues constituting apriority

matterasdeterminedbytheDepartment of Labour.
Follow-up Inspection focuses on problems andcontraventions of the Act and its Regulation as
identified in previous routine visits, to determine
the extent to which the enterprise has
responded to the outcome of the earlier routine
visit.

Workers’ accident compensation & insurance
Medical leave and expenses• Where the employee is not able to return to work due toincapacity whether total or partial permanent results from theinjury, the employee shall be entitled to full earnings for a periodof 90 days, and thereafter to a further periodical payment of anamount equal to 75 percent of employee’s last basic wage
earnings during the incapacity or during a period of one years.
• The employer or the insurer shall compensate an injured
employee or one suffering from an occupational disease for all
expenses related to emergency care, medical and nursing
care, including ambulance and related expenses surgery, hospitalfees, medication, X-rays, diagnostic testing, and all other forms oftreatment, , to the extent such services are not provided free ofcharge by the Royal Government’s health services.

Compensation
1. Permanent and partial disablement
The compensation shall be a lumpsum payment which shall be obtainedby multiplying 30 days of the National
Minimum Wage by appropriate age
factors according to the age on thenext birthday of the employees at thetime of the accident times thepercentage of incapacity.

*The authorized medical practitioner shall determine the percent
of permanent and partial disablement

For example, let the age of disabled (loss two limbs)
workers is 20.
30 x 125 x 174 x 100%= 652500/-

Continued……..

Compensation
2. Death
The compensation shall be a lump sum
payment which shall be obtained bymultiplying 30 days of the National
Minimum Wage by appropriate age
factors according to the age on the next
birthday of the employees.
For example, let the age of employee who died be20.
30 x 125 x 132 = 495000/-

Insurance An employer shall insure all employees with an authorized
financial institution to ensure that all types and level ofcompensation prescribed in the regulations are covered byan insurance policy. (This does not apply to those
employers holding Micro Trade business licenses.
 The agreed premium shall be paid by the employer andshall not be deducted from the employee’s wage/salary.
**The insurance premium is being discussed with financial
institutes.**Safety Equipment and Facilities
 During routine and special inspectioninthose
hazardous
sites
ordangerous machinery or plants are
involved, Labour Inspectors aremandated to carry required devices
like Decibel Meter, luxmeter, PCE
instrument, etc., to test thepermissible levels.
 In addition to that, Labour Inspectors
are required to wear personal
protective equipment and inspection
uniform while visiting a site.

Activities of Industrial/Occupational Safety and HealthOrganizations other than government.
 The enterprise with 20 or more employee are required to have OHS
committee and every OHS committee should have one trained Safety
Officer for the following purposes:• Assist management in terms of OHS;
• Prepare and implement OHS programs;• Advise & carry out risk management in the workplace;• DealwithEnvironment.

allothermattersconcerning

Health,Safety&Campaign/ Event/ National Convention/ Exhibition
 The department has come up with the initiative of OHS Auditing

System in 2015 where all enterprises with registered OHS committee
are assessed annually and rewarded for their efforts in maintaining
good OHS practices at workplace.
 Coinciding with World Safety Day (28th April), all assessed enterprises
are call for day long celebration where enterprise scoring 70% andabove in OHS assessment are rewarded with certificate of appreciationand medal for top three enterprises.

Issues and Challenges in Implementing OHS in Bhutan The division at present has a total of 8 Labour Inspectors and anengineer guided by above laws and regulation in implementing the OHS The followings are some challenges:o Lack of trained officials in OHS field and also no separate unit ordivision of OHS under Department of Labour (so, not able to focus

fully on OHS);o Resistant from the employer and employees (old mindset)o Lack of full-time safety officer in the companyo Lack of awareness and trainings
o Workplace accidents are not reported to the Department.

Kadrinchoe (Thank You)