–Minister Scott tells private, public sectors

By Shauna Jemmott

JUNIOR Social Protection Minister Keith Scott has called for occupational health and safety to be on the front burner of priorities in management meetings and seminars in both the private and public sectors.Minister Scott made this appeal at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Ministry of Social Protection consultations on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), held recently. The forum was attended by stakeholders from the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industries (CAGI), the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), and the National Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH).

The consultation was part of a series of such activities, and was designed to help the Government craft a new policy on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), modernise the 1996 OSH plan, and develop a national profile on OSH to prevent accidents resulting in injuries and deaths in the workplace.

The minister pointed out that safety in the workplace has been placed in a position of dormancy, and called on workplaces in both the public and private sectors to restore safety to a position of prominence.

“It is necessary, now more than ever, to ensure that the health and safety of workers — and I dare add management also — be elevated to boardroom status,” Minister Scott told the forum.

He said the topic is left outside of the strategic plans, programmes and budgets of many organisations; and he encouraged stakeholders to adopt the right attitude towards OSH.

“I have decided to invoke the concept of the boardroom status simply because, much too often, safety is treated as an appendage to management systems, and is therefore relegated to the periphery of the strategic plans, programmes, and budgets of many organisations. It is against that backdrop that a safety policy — and by extension safety itself — becomes a casualty rather than a valued instrument. This, I believe, must be eliminated from our thought processes and practices,” Minister Scott said.

He said that the OSH Policy is supported by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No. 32 of 1997, which is a most comprehensive piece of occupational safety legislation.

“The current OSH legislation embraces the Factories Act, Chapter 95:02, which was rather parochial in its scope and mission, (and) did not provide for implementation, maintenance, and continual update of a health and safety policy in a manner that the OSH Act provides for today. An examination of the primary focus and agenda of the Factories Act and the OSH Act provides a distinct understanding that a safety policy is not only absolutely necessary, but is must be current and reflective of evolving technology, which does not in any way transgress the rights and safety of workers,” he said.

ILO Regional Director Claudia Coenjaerts highlighted the importance of OSH in the workplace, and said its absence can be tragic. She said that, annually, some two million workers lose their lives; 160 million fall sick as a result of workplace hazards, and 250 million workplace accidents occur around the world.

Here in Guyana, thus far in the year, there have been over 500 loss-time accidents and nine fatal accidents.
The minister blamed poor health and safety practices for these incidents, and said such occurrences are also economically expensive.