Dear Editor,
I refer to the letter captioned to the editor “The Ministry of Labour should establish a hinterland unit” (08.04.04).
The Ministry of Labour welcomes the suggestion by Mr. Hernandez to establish a hinterland unit. At this moment and in the medium term, this will not be possible; however, the ministry is reaching out more to service these areas.
Last year, we held a Labour, Occupational Safety & Health and HIV/AIDS seminar in Lethem. Already for 2008 a visit was made to Mahdia for an extensive three-day outreach which was done at the end of March.
As part of our work, a visit to StrataGold was scheduled for April 21 – before Mr. Hernandez’s letter.
What Mr Hernandez correctly asks for is an effective way for the ministry to deal with the concerns of workers who are far outside the physical reach of our office on the coast.
We are in the process of preparing educational material on the Labour, Occupational Health and Safety Laws and we do physical visits in our hinterland.
In the meanwhile let us use the channels of the RDC to communicate concerns to us.
Yours faithfully,
Hon Manzoor Nadir MP
