More than three weeks after she laid her son to rest the mother of Orlon Munroe still wonders if she will ever be compensated for his death.
Munroe, 19, of Virginia Village, passed away on September 5 after sustaining third degree burns three months prior in a trawler explosion at sea.
On the morning of June 19, Munroe sustained the burns after the trawler he was working on, the Captain Lloyd 97, exploded in flames about 135 miles off the Waini Coast.
The vessel belonged to Pritipaul Singh Investments.
His mother Cheryl Munroe told Stabroek News recently via telephone that since her son’s funeral on September 11, “nobody ain’t come and tell me nothing up to now. Nobody ain’t come forward to tell me ‘bout compensation.”
According to Cheryl, the company had paid for the tomb and casket for her son’s funeral and had also reimbursed her the cost of the clothes she bought to bury Munroe in.
“I wondering what move to make next,” she said.
In the meantime, Cheryl said, her children and “spiritual brothers and sisters” have been “keeping me up”. She said she would think of her son often in her quiet moments. “He father teking on. His pressure gone up, I had to get tablets for him,” Cheryl said.
Munroe’s father, Maxwell had told this newspaper, “Orlon is my shadow…anything is me and Orlon.”
A month before his death, in an interview from his bed in the Burns Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, Munroe had said that the fire started from the engine room where there was “an expose wire”.
An investigation into the explosion was launched after the accident.
Captain of the vessel Delbert Williams of Cane Grove remains missing.
The Maritime Administra-tion Department (MARAD) had submitted two reports on investigations done on trawler explosions to Works Minister Robeson Benn.
Efforts to contact Benn for the findings and recommendations of the report were futile.
Stabroek News was unable too to contact the spokesperson of Pritipaul Singh Investments for a comment.
At the home of Munroe the day after his death, an official of Pritipaul Singh Investments told his father “maintenance work is done on every boat after every trip” adding that the company “is anxiously awaiting a copy of the report to see the findings and recommendations.”
Meanwhile, Head of the Ministry of Labour’s Occupational Safety and Health Department Yognand Persaud expressed an interest in the case.
He told this newspaper that he was interested in listening to Munroe’s mother and offering guidance on what she can do.
He said he would also get the company involved and if they could not come to agreeable compensation terms then legal action will have to be taken.
According to Persaud, the Workers Compensation Act states that the dependants of a person who was injured or died while working can take court action to seek compensation.
He added that this was old legislation.
Persaud said that at the Labour Ministry they try to advise and help persons arrive at a settlement before going to court since most of the persons seeking compensation cannot afford court costs. But family members “have a legal right to take [employers] to court.”
