Occupational Safety & Health (Part I)

OCCUPATIONAL Safety and Health (OSH) is everybody’s business. Why do I say so? Simply put, the most important resources in national development are our human resources. And so, we must operate in a way that protects our human resources — the workers in their spheres of operation. The International Labour Organization (ILO) saw it fit to establish a Convention that speaks to OSH (Convention 155 – Occupational Safety and Health, 1981). This Convention concerns OSH and the Working Environment, and it came into force on August 11, 1983.

Guyana subsequently ratified C-155, and later moved to realize its Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1997, along the lines of a CARICOM Model. The CARICOM Model was designed with help of expertise from the ILO. Guyana was the first CARICOM Member State to introduce safety and health legislation, along the lines of the CARICOM Model.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1997, parts of which are discussed in some detail later, applies to industrial establishments (including shops and offices), and to any agricultural undertaking, construction site, or logging operation. Its provisions on accidents and diseases also apply to persons employed in government departments. However, it does not apply to the police and the armed services.

The OSH Act defines occupational disease and work-related disease. A National Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) has been established to advise the Minister, and promote public awareness on OSH.

The Minister is also given the power to appoint an OSH Commissioner, who “shall have all the powers of an arbitration tribunal to which the provisions of the Labour (Arbitration Procedure) Regulations apply.” The OSH Act also gives the court wide powers to impose penalties.

The Act calls for workplaces to set up joint safety and health committees. The safety and health committee at a workplace is to do the following:

•    Identify situations that may be a source of danger or hazard to workers;
•    Make recommendations to the employer and the workers for the improvement of the health and welfare of the workers;
•    Recommend to the employer and the workers, maintenance and monitoring of programmes, and measures and procedures respecting the safety of the workers;
•    Obtain information from the employer respecting:
(a)    The identification of potential or existing hazards of materials, processes or equipment; and
(b)    safety and health experiences and work practices and standards in similar or other industries of which the employer has knowledge.
•    Obtain information from the employer concerning the conducting or taking of tests of any equipment, machine, physical or biological agent in or about a workplace for the purpose of occupational safety and health; and
•    Be in consultation with the employer, and have a designated member representing the workers present at the beginning of testing conducted in or about the workplace, to ensure that valid testing procedures are used and that the testing results are valid.

Before the OSH Act came on stream, trade unions had fought for, and obtained through collective bargaining, the establishment of joint safety and health committees at a number of workplaces. The Act therefore strengthens and extends the scope of a system that was already in place.

Under the OSH Act, a worker can refuse to work or do particular work where he has reason to believe that:

(a)    Any equipment, machine, device or article the worker is to use or operate presents an imminent danger to the life or health of himself, or another worker; or
(b)    The physical condition of the workplace, or the part thereof in which he works, or is to work, presents an imminent and serious danger to life or health.

Where the worker is moved to refuse to work for the reasons stated above, he must immediately report the circumstances which led him to do so. An investigation shall be carried out in his presence, or the presence of a worker member of the safety and health committee. During the time the worker is off the job, he cannot lose pay, and no disciplinary action can be taken against him.

The OSH Act places great responsibility on the OSH Authority to ensure that adequate provisions are made for the safe use, handling, storage and disposal of hazardous substances. An employer is obliged to maintain an inventory of hazardous chemicals and all hazardous physical agents in the workplace. The employer also has to maintain a hazardous data sheet, and ensure that all dangerous substances are labelled.

It is the duty of the employer to notify the Safety and Health Authority of any accident which causes loss of life, or disables a worker for more than one day.

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT 1997
Definitions

There are several terms used in the Act of 1997. Some of them are stated hereunder, and all workers should try and become familiar with these definitions.

Critical substance: This means a chemical physical agent or biological agent, or a combination thereof, prescribed as a critical substance to which exposure of a worker is prohibited, regulated, restricted, limited or controlled.

Put simply, it is substance that is harmful or dangerous to a worker’s health.

Hazardous biological agent: This is a biological agent, at an excessive level, for which relevant information exists to indicate that the biological agent at this level is hazardous.

Hazardous chemical: Means any chemical which has been classified as hazardous, in accordance with Article 6 of the ILO Convention (No. 170), or for which relevant information exists to indicate that the chemical is hazardous.
(Article 6 of the ILO Convention No. 170 speaks to Classification Systems):
1. Systems and specific criteria appropriate for the classification of all chemicals according to the type and degree of their intrinsic health and physical hazards and for assessing the relevance of the information required to determine whether a chemical is hazardous shall be established by the competent authority, or by a body approved or recognised by the competent authority, in accordance with national or international standards.
2. The hazardous properties of mixtures composed of two or more chemicals may be determined by assessments based on the intrinsic hazards of their component chemicals.
3. In the case of transport, such systems and criteria shall take into account the United Nations Recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods.
4. The classification systems and their application shall be progressively extended.)
Hazardous physical agent: What this refers to is any physical agent at excessive level for which relevant information exists to indicate that the physical agent at this level is hazardous.
Hazardous substances: Means a substance or mixture of substances which by virtue of chemical, physical or toxicological properties either singly or in combination, constitutes a hazard.
Physical agent: This includes electromagnetic radiation, noise, vibration, heat, cold, humidity and pressure.

Young person: This refers to a person who has ceased to be a child and has not attained the age of eighteen years.

To be continued on Wednesday….
*The writer is the former General Secretary of the Clerical & Commercial Workers’ Union (CCWU) and also a former President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and a former Vice President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC). He served the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) as Research Officer 1983 – 1998.

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