Occupational Health and Safety continues and is still in the air, and one of Guyana’s larger employers, Banks DIH Limited, yesterday held an Occupational Health and Safety symposium.
Under the theme ‘Emerging Risks and New Patterns of Prevention in a Changing World of Work’, the forum is one of many being held in keeping with Occupational Health and Safety month.
While Occupational Health and Safety Day is observed on April 28, Guyana has gone a step further and has named April Occupational Health and Safety Month.
The symposium at the company’s conference room, targeted a cross-section of the company’s staffers.
Addressing the gathering was Occupational Health and Safety Officer Charles Ogle from the Ministry of Labour, who made it clear that there are several emerging challenges facing the workforce in Guyana.
However, Ogle contended that education and awareness would counter these.
Also present at the forum was Mr. Norris Witter, from the Guyana Trade Union Congress; Mr. Andrew Carto, Banks DIH Limited Human Resource Director; and Mr. Henry Lewis the company’s Training Manager.
Lewis noted that prevention of risks in a changing world of work is a priority area that must be addressed.
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Drug and alcohol abuse was one area that received particular focus at the symposium.
According to the ILO, “Occupational health should aim at the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job.”