Dubai: In a move aimed at reducing poor hygiene in beauty salons, Dubai Municipality will soon start a health supervisor training programme for the employees of 3,600 salons and personal care centres catering to both men and women.
Redha Hassan Salman, director of the Health and Safety Department, on Wednesday announced that the programme will be launched after the accreditation of certification bodies by the Dubai Accreditation Centre, and the approval of training and consulting companies by the department.
Salman said that health supervisors are required to complete the training programme approved by the department for a prescribed number of hours. They are also required to pass the test prepared by the certification bodies and obtain the certificate of health supervisor.
The municipality had announced mandatory health and safety certification for salon workers in Dubai last year.
The aim of the training programme is to oversee the work system and processes in salons and personal care centres. It also includes the task of assessing the risks and the development of corrective actions and plans of action to follow up on these procedures.
“It includes supervision of cleaning and sterilisation, use of single-use tools and the workers’ practices in order to ensure the provision of services in a hygienic and safe manner. Duties of the health supervisor will also include the preparation of reports on the health status and safety of employees in accordance with the checklist prepared for this purpose as well as follow-up inspection and monitoring reports issued by the Health Control Section in the department for the purpose of correcting all the violations contained in the report and communicating with the department to provide them with all the required documents,” said Salman.
He stressed that the idea of the health supervisor programme came after the field studies and monitoring visits organised by the Health Control Section to measure the awareness of employees in the ladies’ and gents’ salons and the personal care centers with health and safety procedures.
The results showed low level of awareness among employees on the causes of transmission of infectious diseases, which may be transmitted to customers and employees in those places. The Section also observed recurrence of hygiene violations related to wrong hygiene practices by employees, and the lack of knowledge on Health and Safety.
“The programme also included training on health and safety best practices, how to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases among the customers, ideal dealing with tools, equipment and devices and sterilising them, optimising the use of disposable tools, following the best standards for cleaning and ventilation of the workplace, and the best ways to avoid unhealthy practices during service delivery as well as tips and guidance to reduce occupational health risks.”
The official said that the training programme will have a clear positive impact on the revival of the economic situation of these business activities as a result of increased customer confidence in the services provided to them, accompanied by an increase in demand for these services.
“As the programme will enhance the hygiene awareness of the workers in salons, it will have a positive impact on the health and safety of the public, in addition to reducing the monitoring visits, customer complaints, violations, unhealthy practices, transmission of infectious diseases to customers and employees, and raise the level of response in applying the hygiene rules of Dubai Municipality,” Salman said.
