Dear Editor,
A now retired GuySuCo manager called up to opine that the ‘fired’ workers of the Skeldon Factory were bound to be returned to work.
His view was that in the absence of any explicit standard operating procedure, it would be difficult to measure and apportion different degrees of penalty, including termination of services. If he has a point, then his view leaves one to ponder the extent or otherwise of the emergency operating procedures in the rest of the factory.
He next wondered how often the occupational health and safety committee for the factory, as indeed the field committee, meets, and what sort of inspections are conducted and reports made.
Then he went on to recall how in his time the level of importance that was attached to safety; the records that were kept; trends of incidents noted for action; the competitions that were promoted amongst estates; the safety slogans mounted; and the related status of the (Chief) Occupational Health and Safety Officer in the corporation.
In that context, he observed that while all the media reports concentrated on the industrial relations impasse, there was hardly mention of any remedial action taken to ensure that similar incidents will be avoided and/or appropriately add-ressed.
He shrugged in his voice, then uttered: “Let’s wait and see.”
Yours faithfully,
E B John
