By Raynald C Rivera
DOHA: There is an increasing demand for health and safety practitioners in Qatar as the country witnesses a huge boom in the construction sector, says an expert.
Leo S Dote, President, Philippine Association of Safety Engineers (PHASE) – Qatar, said with the huge demand in the field which promises higher pay, some decide to shift their career paths towards a job in health and safety.
“There is an increase in demand for safety practitioners and at the same time the recognition and value for Filipinos in the field has increased. Not all of us in PHASE are safety practitioners, there are those who shifted careers to health and safety with the higher pay, they get,” Dote told The Peninsula yesterday. He was speaking on the sidelines of the inaugural ‘PHASE Construction Occupational Safety and Health Summit’ — a major highlight of the year-round programme of the organisation which marks its 10th anniversary this year.
Thousands of Filipino safety practitioners have benefited from PHASE’s training programmes.
“There are lots of success stories. You will be surprised how these people progressed from simple employees to safety supervisors and assistant safety managers while some are working with consultants with bigger salaries because of what they have learned and applied through various programmes of the organisation. There are thousands of Filipino safety practitioners in Qatar, including around 4,000 who are members of our organisation,” he said.
The number could further increase with the thousands of visas available for Filipinos who would opt to seek employment in Qatar. “The ambassador and I recently met Minister for Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr. Issa Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi and he said there are 77,000 visas available for Filipinos,” said David Des T Dicang, Labour Attaché at the Embassy.
“We are happy that the host country appreciates the hard work of Filipinos,” Dicang told the summit. Based on the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration website, there are hundreds of job orders from Qatar in the field of health and safety.
Dote urges Filipinos to elevate safety level
He assured the organisation of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office’s support and encouraged them to continue providing programmes for Filipino safety practitioners to cope with the competition in the sector.
“As leaders we want to elevate the level of safety practice among Filipinos at the international level, and recently we were recognised and accepted by International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) as a corporate member,” said Dote.
PHASE is the third organisation in Qatar and the only safety entity is recognized by the prestigious UK-based IIRSM which has 37 members, majority of which are companies and training centres.
About 100 participants took part at the summit at Governor West Bay Suites and Residences.
“The purpose of the summit is to bring Filipino safety and non-safety practitioners together and get them more interested in the construction industry knowing that the bulk of workers coming in Qatar now are mostly in the construction sector, “ he said. Safety and health luminaries were invited to discuss topics, including ‘Physics of Falling’; ‘Managing Occupational Health Risks in Construction Industry’; ‘Safety Profession – A Calling’; ‘Hearing Conservation’; and ‘Fire Safety in Construction’.
“Safety is everyone’s responsibility and is a very noble profession. It’s about saving one person’s life so that another person will save another’s life not because he is dying but because he needs to be safe in everything he does in the construction industry and elsewhere,” said Dote.
The Peninsula
