Dear Editor,
I accept that good news is someone doing their duty and bad news is good media business, but it is my view that the provision of information, as a public service, must be balanced and this must be one of the objectives of the Stabroek Business.
Your article in the issue of April 4, 2008 headlined “Tougher safety and health, accident investigation regime needed for private sector – local businesswoman – Labour Ministry not equipped to implement regulations” makes a lot of claims and gives what seems to be reasoned explanations, by your source, for them. You, however, never sought to get a comment from the Ministry on these charges. We accept that there is a lot of work to be done to improve safety and health at workplaces and among workers. We accept that we need to ensure that the public sector has a lot to do in this regard also. We accept that we need more resources to be devoted to this matter. We accept that their needs to be more training of staff. What I do not accept is the claim that we have miniaturized the Occupational Safety and Health Department or that we have allowed accidents to go unchecked and un-investigated.
If you permit, I wish to shed some light on the positive departmental changes in the area of occupational safety and health
Merger of OSH and labour
functions;
The claim of miniaturization comes from those who are supporting ineffectiveness. We have merged the functions of the labour inspector and the occupational safety and health inspector. Our officers are designated Labour, Occupational Safety & Health Officers (LOSH) This merger was done since 2006 and physically accomplished in the last quarter of 2007.
Three departments have been created. There is now a dedicated inspectorate with 50% of the staff. Last year, when the departments were separate there were just about 600 OSH inspections as against 1800 labour inspections. This year there will be over 2400 LOSH inspections. Each inspection will cover both the areas OSH and Labour. In terms of employers’ response to the merger, this has been welcomed.
Our OSH department will be strengthened with more staff. March 28 was the closure of applications for persons to fill five positions for which we have vacancies. And we have had the necessary approvals to fill other senior positions in our organizations. In addition, the new look, uniformed, LOSH officer was launched earlier this year.
These changes will improve the quantity and quality of inspection and give tremendous bite to our bark on the issue of worker safety and health.
Training:
With the merger there is a need for the training of the staff in the areas where they may not be exposed. Also when new employees come on they would have to be trained in specifics of these specialized areas. We have prepared a programme that not only includes in-house activities, but also overseas exposure. In this regard, the Inter American Conference of Labour Ministers (IACML) is giving a lot of support to us. In June they will provide financial support for a delegation from Guyana to visit Trinidad and they will also provide the technical experts to do a one week training here in Guyana for our staff. Then in August one of our staff will participate in an international training programme in Peru.
In addition, the ILO is supporting training efforts through a conciliation and mediation training workshop here from April 24 to the 30.
Safety and health in the public
sector
We agree that every workplace, public or private is bound by the OSH Laws. Over two months ago I sent letters to all my colleagues to be proactive in having these established in the public sector. Many responded positively, and during this month health and safety committees will be formally launched in this ministry as well as the Ministry of Health.
Prosecutions
While we have a policy of working with delinquent employers in terms of their education and awareness of the laws, this year we will intensify charges against employers for violations of the OSH and Labour Laws. Already several matters are being brought against such employers.
Public awareness
As part of our efforts to sensitize all in the workforce, we are soon to launch a massive media blitz on the major labour and OSH laws. These will also be posted on our soon to be launched website.
In my review of our activities for 2007 I said for 2008 “Safe Workplaces and Healthy Workers are our priorities”
Yours faithfully,
Manzoor Nadir
Minister of Labour
