Occupational Safety & Health (Part VI) cont’d…
Power to make a complaint at any time for an offence under Part II
Section 83 of the Act says: A complaint may be made for an offence under Part II although more than one year has elapsed since the date on which the offence is alleged to have been committed. I move now to PART X of this Act: MISCELLANEOUS

Display of notices

84 (1): There shall be displayed in every industrial establishment a notice containing such abstract of this Act and the regulations made thereunder, as may be prescribed.

84 (2): All notices required under this Act, to be displayed in an industrial establishment shall be displayed where they can conveniently be read by the persons employed in the industrial establishment, at some conspicuous place at or near the main entrance to the industrial establishment and shall be maintained in a clean and legible condition.

Provided that the Authority may direct that all or any of the aforesaid documents shall be posted in such parts of the industrial establishment either in addition to or in substitution for such conspicuous place as aforesaid, as it may direct.

Power of the Authority to require returns

Section 85 of this Act says: The Authority may require occupiers or managers of industrial establishments to submit such returns, occasional or periodical, as may in its opinion be required for the purpose of this Act.

General register

86 (1): There shall be kept in every industrial establishment, or such place outside the industrial establishment as may be approved by the inspector, a register, in the prescribed form, called the general register and there shall be entered in or attached to that register:   
(a) the prescribed particulars as to the persons employed in the industrial establishment who have not attained the age of eighteen;

(b) the prescribed particulars as to the washing, white-washing or colour-washing, painting or varnishing, of the industrial establishment;

(c) the prescribed particulars as to every accident and case of industrial disease occurring in the industrial establishment of which notice is required to be sent to an inspector;

(d) all reports and particulars as required by any other provision of this Act to be entered in or attached to the general register; and

(e) such other matters as may be prescribed.
The Act goes on at 86 (2) to say: The occupier of an industrial establishment shall send to an inspector such extracts from the general register as the inspector may from time to time require for the purpose of the execution of his duties under this Act.

Enforcement by local sanitary authority of regulations made under this Act
87 (1): The provisions of regulations made under this Act relating to cleanliness, ventilation, overcrowding, lighting, drinking water, washing facilities and sanitary conveniences shall be enforced by local sanitary authority of the district in which the industrial establishment is situate;

87 (2): For the purpose of their duties under this section a Local Sanitary Authority and its officers shall without prejudice to their powers, have all such powers of entry, inspection, taking legal proceedings, or otherwise, as the Authority or an inspector has, and accordingly in relation to their said duties the provisions of the Act as to furnishing means required by the Authority or an inspector, and delaying or obstructing the Authority or an inspector, shall be construed as including references to such officers, but no such powers of entry, inspection or taking legal proceedings shall be exercised except by the officers of the Local Sanitation Authority authorised by the Authority in writing in that behalf either generally or specifically.

87 (3): Where the Authority or an inspector finds any Act or default in relation to any matter in an industrial establishment which is liable to be dealt with by the Local Sanitary Authority, he shall give notice thereof in writing to the Sanitary Authority aforesaid and to the Central Board of Health.  It shall be the duty of the Local Sanitary Authority to make such inquiry into the subject of the notice and take such action thereon as seems to the Authority proper for the purpose at enforcing the law and to inform the Authority or the inspector as the case way be, and the Central Board of Health of the proceedings taken in consequence of the notice.   

87 (4): If within one month after notice of an act or default is given by the Authority or an inspector under this section to a Local Sanitary Authority proceedings are not taken for remedying or punishing the default or act, the Central Board of Health, the Authority or the inspector as the case may be may take proceedings for the remedying or punishment of the default or act, in accordance with this Act.

87 (5): The Authority or an inspector shall for the purposes of his duties under this section have the same powers in regard to any such matters as he has with respect to other matters under this Act and he may for that purpose take like proceedings of enforcing this Act or for remedying or punishing any default or act as might be taken by the Local Sanitary Authority.
*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.