Guyana’s manufacturing sector can anticipate having to comply with a range of new occupational safety and health (OSH) regulations as the time draws closer for the enactment of legislation prepared for the sector by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Stabroek Business has learnt that the impending safety and health regulations for the manufacturing sector could have a comprehensive impact on the manner in which the country’s manufacturing sector is run. Among other things, the regulations are likely to impact on the administrative requirements for starting up or operating a manufacturing enterprise.
Any new legislation will also address a comprehensive range of general safety requirements including access to and egress from workplaces, safety in relation to machinery and equipment, safety in relation to plant, powered mobile equipment, electrical safety, safety in relation to protective equipment, safety in relation to processes and working environment.
Local Safety and Health Consultant Dale Beresford told Stabroek Business earlier this week that he was aware that tougher regulations were on the way for the manufacturing sector and “the need now arises for the sector to familiarise itself with the recommendations of the ILO ahead of those regulations becoming law. He said some of the key concerns were likely to centre around the duties of employers under the new OSH regulations relating to the provision and effective maintenance of workplace plant and systems, providing instruction and information to workers in the context of the new regulations and ensuring that the use, handling, storage, processing and transportation and disposal of plant, the use handling, storage, processing and transportation of substances at the workplace is carried out in such a manner as to ensure that workers are not exposed to hazards.
Beresford said he believed the business support organisations, particularly the Guyana Manufacturers & Services Association (GMSA) must, “at the very least, begin in earnest to familiarise themselves with the draft regulations.” He said it was “a discomfiting thing” that the manufacturing sector appeared “far from properly briefed” on the ILO document.
According to Beresford “what manufacturers sometimes do not bear in mind is that in countries where safety and health regulations are enforced those regulations not only save lives but adherence to them enhances the image of companies and the marketability of their products.”
And on a related issue, Beresford said he was unaware of the reasons why little was being said on the progress that Guyana was making towards meeting the standards set out in the United States’ 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). “The reality is that whether we press ahead with reaching the standards or not there will come a point in time when our access to the US market for items of food originating in Guyana will depend on compliance,” Beresford said.
In relation to the ILO’s OSH regulations he is considering formally communicating with the GMSA.
