– reports of workplace accidents increase almost tenfoldby Leonard GildarieThe Ministry of Labour says that it has recovered more than $36M representing employees and lobbying to workplaces for this year.This is almost double what the government would have helped collect for workers last year.According to a weekly Labour, Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) report for December 7-11, in 2008, workers who approached the ministry to help them recover disputed wages and salaries received $19.2M.This year the figure almost doubled to $36.31M as at December 11, and the year is not over yet.While last year, 26 requests for conciliation were received with 33 completed, so far 27 requests were submitted this year with 16 completed.Last year, there were 937 workers’ complaints received by the ministry with 840 dealt with as against 1,322 received this year and 853 addressed.This year also,cheap authentic jerseys, government upped its inspections of workplaces with 4,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,029 exercises conducted. Last year, 2,Cheap Jerseys,791 workplace inspections were carried out.Employers being taken to court jumped to 114 for 2009 when compared to only 73 last year.In terms of Collective Labour Agreements, while 27 were signed last year,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, this dropped to 16 for this year.Significantly, the incidence of strikes across the country dropped from 180 recorded last year to 75 this year. While the incidence of workplace deaths remained the same at 10, officials at the ministry would have been more than worried with the number of workplace non-fatal accidents being reported jumping almost ten-fold from 142 in 2008 to 1,042 for this year alone.The ministry had investigated 42 cases of workplace accidents last year but their workload more than doubled to 102 for this year.Another area of significant achievement for the ministry, the report said,Cheap Jerseys Free, is that the campaign to ensure that industrial workplaces comply with labour laws saw 420 of them registered for this year,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, as compared to 261 for last year.According to Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, yesterday, his ministry is stepping up the campaign to ensure that workplaces toe the line as far as the labour laws and requirements are concerned.