NOTHING is more important and meaningful for an injured employee suffering from employment injury and invalidity than to be treated, rehabilitated and returned to work, economically empowered and be able to reintegrate with society.

What better social protection can one have other than having access to employment opportunities, decent and sustainable employment and being able to contribute to the nation’s productivity output.

If one thinks about disability resulting from an injury or accident at work, it is indeed a very scary thought.

With mishaps and accidents occurring every day despite preventive efforts, many of our workers are lost prematurely at their most productive age.

For those who are severely injured and traumatised due to workplace accidents, it does not mean the end of the world for them and they can return to work and be reintegrated into society.

The Return to Work programme (RTW) provided by Social Security Organisation (Socso), is a systematic disability case management programme which implements a coordinated approach in managing compensation, medical and vocational rehabilitation for returning an injured worker to gainful employment.

This is truly social security at its best, we do not need a social security system which only provides compensation, but one which will also provides the opportunity to be reintegrated back to the society and put back smiles on peoples’ faces.

At a recent RTW conference organised by Socso under the theme “Economic Empowerment and Societal Reintegration”, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot shared a true story of a RTW program participant who was thrown unconscious after having been accidentally struck by a high voIltage cable while working in an oil palm estate.

He was sent to hospital and both his hands and left leg had to be amputated and was later referred to Socso’s RTW programme. After going through a rigorous process of rehabilitation and treatment he was fitted with proper prosthesis and orthotic devices to enable him to function in his daily activities.

Two years after his injury, with the help of Socso and a caring employer he was able to secure a job as a customer service officer.

The RTW programme is a truly noble one and stands out as a good example of what Socso can do to provide a better outreach and social protection to all workers as well as to put into practice the concept of disability management to all employers.

Since its introduction in 2007 and till June this year, the RTW programme has so far restored 8,615 persons with injuries or illnesses back to work with 958 workers returning to employment in the first half of this year.

Socso and the ministry should be complimented for the RTW programme and how it has given injured employees with disabilities a new lease of life through economic empowerment and societal reintegration.

Restoring persons with injuries or illnesses back to employment requires a lot of patience, commitment, hardwork and passion by the drivers of the programme.

All those who made it possible; the affected patients, Socso and the employers deserve to be congratulated and should be given all the encouragement to do more in the days ahead.

TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE

Chairman

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health