More than a week into April – Occupational Safety and Health Month – little if anything has been heard from either the government or the private sector about plans to commemorate what, in Guyana’s particular circumstances is an occasion of considerable significance if only because of our own less than stellar record on the issue of workplace safety and health.
One recalls that in recent months the country recorded a succession of serious accidents in the bauxite, rice, construction and sanitation sectors, two of which resulted in fatalities. As far as we are aware the Ministry of Labour has not completed any investigatory and reporting action (as is its responsibility under the law) nor has it been forthcoming in making public what its plans are in this regard even though, we have, now been able to secure an agreement from the Minister of Labour to talk with us about safety and health.
One of the issues which we propose to raise with the Minister when we meet with him is what is widely believed to be the lack of capacity of his Ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health Division to conduct the wide-ranging investigations into workplace accidents when they occur. Even before one gets to that stage there are also questions about the proficiency and regularity of the Ministry’s obligatory safety and health workplace checks designed to monitor ongoing safety and health standards and to help forestall avoidable accidents.
On the whole it is our impression that there are huge gaps in the safety and health regimes in both the public and private sectors, this, despite what we are told was one of the most progressive collection of safety and health laws in the region.
It is assumed that before the month comes to an end the Ministry of Labour might trot out some set of commemorative events designed to mark Safety and Health Month though one wonders whether, these will make any difference in the longer term. Will the Ministry, for example, do anything (in terms of serious training) to significantly enhance its capacity to administer safety and health in the public and private sectors including investigate and report on accidents and step up its capacity to undertake routine and effective safety and health inspections? Will it begin to pay closer attention to the construction sector, for example, including the magnitude of many of the current undertakings to ensure not only that safety risks are minimized but that work is done of standards that ensure the longer term safety of the premises?
And what about the numerous hazards to workers’ health manifested in various forms of inhospitable working conditions like those that manifest themselves in some factories and retail stores? Couldn’t OSH Month be used as an opportunity to address these shortcomings?
Beyond these shortcomings there are also others associated with poor OSH standards in some state-run offices and a filthy external environment that impacts directly on workers as much in their workplaces, in some instances, as on the streets. It is time that the Ministry of Labour, the private sector organizations and the trade unions get past the rhetoric associated and begin to focus on real change.
