Seventeen-year-old Threeion Gittens died a horrible death on Thursday, crushed under the weight of a large amount of paddy at Caricom Rice Mills Limited (CRML). It appears that a storage tank developed a hole and gave away.
There must be a detailed investigation of this matter by the police and the Occupational Safety and Health Department of the Ministry of Labour. CRML was one of the earliest rice mills divested by the PNC government in the early 1990s. One wonders how much retooling and refurbishing there has been over the years of this Anna Regina Mill and the frequency of checks by safety inspectors of its silos and equipment to ensure soundness.
The investigation must also address what a youth of tender age was doing in such a hazardous aspect of the mill’s operations. The investigation must further establish culpability and what options are available to the family of the deceased in pursuing justice.
The serious matter of worksite deaths was recently raised in several Stabroek News reports which drew on information from the Ministry of Labour. Unfortunately, the ministry was not able to present a convincing case that enough is being done in concluding these investigations so that the families of the deceased could pursue justice.
For over a year now, Wendella Johnson told Stabroek News that she has been awaiting justice and compensation following the electrocution of her son Ulric Johnson, 23, of Leeds, Number 50 Village, Corentyne, who at the time of his death was a technician attached to the Skeldon Sugar Estate. Ulric Johnson was electrocuted while cleaning a transformer in a boiler at the estate on January 27, 2014. According to Johnson, she has since hired a lawyer to advise her as she said that the management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation has disappointed her by their inaction.
It was reported that Johnson was pronounced dead on arrival at the Skeldon Hospital. Johnson was wearing protective clothing (a helmet, gloves, safety overalls and boots) at the time of the accident and was said to have had approximately five years of experience in the field. This is surely a case that the Ministry of Labour and its allied agencies should be diligently pursuing with GuySuCo on behalf of the Johnson family. Cases such as these underline the uphill task that families such as the Johnsons face in their hour of greatest need when trying to seek justice and protect their interests. Though it never fails to play up its working class credentials, many challenged and impoverished families like in this case are often left to their own devices with little or no help from the government. This must not be the fate of Threeion Gittens’ family and the Ministry of Labour must take the lead in this matter.
The death of Threeion Gittens also raises another serious issue for the government and the country i.e. the employment of youth in some of the most hazardous and dangerous forms of employment. This is an issue that the government has been pressed on before but deaths continue as in the case of 17-year-old Gittens who had been in the employ of the mill for sometime. The employment of youths in these types of jobs is only known when the worst occurs. It must mean that there are significant numbers of youths presently engaged in hazardous and the worst types of labour as they have no other options and they have to help their families out. This has been the recurring story in the death of youths in the goldfields, mainly from mining pit collapses and out at treacherous seas on fishing boats.
The Ministry of Labour must make an effort to determine the extent of the employ of youths in deadly and dangerous occupations such as mining, fishing and factory work and take the requisite action to ensure their safety.
