-poor housekeeping practices also observed
On Monday, Senior Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Officer Darwin Bourne and OSH Officer Ray Hosannah visited the New Thriving Restaurant on Main Street, Georgetown to investigate a complaint.
A release yesterday from the Ministry of Labour said that during their inspection, the officers assessed the generator fuel storage area and discovered that there were no fire protection measures in place to ensure the safety and health of the workers in that area.
As a result, a recommendation was made by the officers that a 4.5kg fire extinguisher be installed in the generator fuel storage area, positioned at least one meter above ground level. This included improving the restaurant’s housekeeping standards.
“In response to the recommendations, Mr. Sang of New Thriving Restaurant took prompt action by installing a 4.5kg Carbon Dioxide fire extinguisher for the generator, which was subsequently inspected and confirmed to be in working condition”, the release said.
The officers further recommended that basic fire prevention training be provided to staff, with a focus on the use, maintenance, and proper placement of fire extinguishers. They also provided additional recommendations to deal with the poor housekeeping practices observed during the inspection.
The release said that these recommendations are in keeping with the Section 46 Subsection 2 (a)&(d) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act Chapter 99:06 Laws of Guyana which requires employers to do the following:
(a) Provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the safety and health of the worker.
(d) Acquaint a worker or a person in authority over a worker of any hazard in the work and handling, storage, use, disposal and transport of any article, device, equipment, chemical, physical agent or biological agent.
