Dear Editor,
I refer to your Stabroek Business editorial dated Friday, January 31, 2014 on the Food Court accident and the Ministry of Labour.
Two officers were immediately dispatched to investigate the incident following the publication of an article in the Stabroek News on the incident. The officers were advised by the supervisor, and subsequently by the owner, that no accident had occurred on the job site. Further, the officers randomly interviewed workers on the construction site to determine whether an accident did occur. The workers claimed no accident occurred.
The owner was advised by the Labour Inspectors that the Occupational Safety and Health Act No 32 of 1997, Part 7, Section 69 (l)b states that persons and companies are obligated to inform by way of written notice, the Chief Labour Officer in the Ministry of Labour within four days should any accident occur within the workplace that disables the worker for more than a day and prevents them from earning full wages.
To date, the Labour Department is not in receipt of any report from workers or relatives of any injured person attesting to the occurrence of an accident as was reported by the Stabroek News.
During the site visit, the Labour Inspectors conducted an inspection and noted breaches relating to the use of safety gear and equipment. The owner and supervisor were advised of their responsibilities and urged to correct the breaches observed. The next day a follow-up inspection was conducted and all of the breaches were corrected.
In an effort to establish whether or not an accident did occur, officers were again sent to investigate, but their efforts were all in vain. In light of the above, the ministry wishes to state that if and when information or evidence to support there being an accident comes to light, the owner and contractor could be liable for a serious breach of the law. As of now, the ministry has no such information to go by and hence is unable to proceed because in the absence of evidence the ministry cannot proceed to institute legal proceedings against anyone.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Ogle
Chief Labour Occupational Safety & Health Officer
Editor’s note
It is not clear why the Ministry of Labour continues to insist that it has no knowledge of an accident, despite the publication of various reports in the media, including in Stabroek News, one of which provided the names of at least two of the injured workers. The thrust of the Stabroek Business editorial was that more than sufficient information had been placed in the public domain ‒ in particular the names of the injured persons ‒ to allow for a determination by the ministry that an accident had in fact taken place. It is really a matter of the Ministry of Labour doing its investigative work diligently.
The owners/contractors, etc, would not have been keen to admit officially that an accident had occurred, so it would have been disingenuous for the Ministry of Labour to continue to visit the site looking for confirmation of it.
