A Ministry of Labour investigation has been launched into the fatal workplace accident that claimed the life of 30-year-old Cindy Jattan at Gafoors last Friday.
Confirming the investigation to this newspaper was the Occupational and Health Safety Consultant for the Ministry of Labour, Gweneth King, who said officers from the ministry were at Gafoors’ Land of Canaan location, on the East Bank of Demerara, where the accident occurred, carrying out their investigation on Saturday morning.
“We are investigating the matter…we have to complete the investigation before I could say what the sanction might be. Up to this morning (Saturday morning) Miss Bess, Senior Safety and Health Officer, was there doing interviews and continuing the investigation,” King related.
Meanwhile, the father of the dead woman, Surindra Jattan, told Sunday Stabroek that his daughter, who was employed as a bond clerk at the hardware store and was sitting at her desk when the rack of hardware products collapsed on her.
“Well the warehouse where she works, her office or her work space where she sits to do all her requisitions or what have you, it’s [under] a material rack where all types of materials are hung on it. It’s not just windows, it’s a set of hardware like bolts, doors, every hardware that you could think about is everything went hanging from at the top of her working space and it’s approximately forty feet from above and it just collapsed on my daughter and that’s what we heard,” he related.
“We heard that she was sitting at that moment when the thing happen and so she couldn’t go right or left, she was in a half enclosed area so she actually went sitting when this thing occur. All of it just came down, covering her and these boxes were so heavy…she couldn’t make it because it’s like all the beams start collapsing on her and just took her life away…I was not there but I heard it took like half hour to pull her out. She died on the spot,” the Senior Jattan further explained.
“This is wrecking. It’s real wrecking. It’s my daughter and I’m feeling for her,” cried the dead woman’s father.
Although he is unaware what the next possible move might be in order to seek justice for his daughter, Jattan, who is a contractor, said that he hopes for the safety regulations to be address in the workplace.
“I’ll need to speak with my lawyer first and see what could be done because this is a safety management issue and it’s like no safety regulations and inspecting of building to have people working under these conditions was done,” he added.
The grieving father described his daughter as an angel who always possessed a kind and loving personality and noted that Jattan was known in her church for being the lead drummer for every service.
