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.
