IN a fervent call to action, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, emphasised the critical importance of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) for all Guyanese citizens during the Ministry of Labour’s mini–OSH Exhibition and Demonstration held at the ministry’s forecourt at Brickdam, Georgetown.

“We need to start seeing Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) as everybody’s business,” Minister Hamilton said on Wednesday.
During the programme, stakeholders from the Ministry’s OSH Department showcased demonstrations and shared their insights, actively engaging attendees in their mission to promote safe and healthy work environments in Guyana.

Minister Hamilton in his brief remarks boldly stated, “We have to start seeing Occupational Safety and Health as everybody’s business. It is not just a conversation for employers and employees; this has to be a national conversation, because the problem we have is a national problem, that all of us, we have to try together to fix.”

The minister emphasised the importance of addressing this matter in homes too in order to extend the scope of occupational safety and health beyond the workplace.
Minister Hamilton also mentioned that his ministry is actively working on expanding the discussion on OSH to include a dedicated communication and public relations initiative that focuses on bringing OSH awareness to households.

“Health and safety are national matters. It must be in our national consciousness as Guyanese. And normally I’d say this and I’ll repeat: we have two options as Guyanese; one, we go along our merry way thinking that this is a matter that’s not so important, or, we change and recognise that we have to adopt a different attitude to this matter.”

“If we choose the former, and don’t respond, I can assure you that we need to prepare to attend a lot of wake houses, play dominoes and cards and bury people the next day, if we don’t change as a nation,” he said.
The minister encouraged the audience to embrace the teachings of OSH and become its followers. He remarked, “For me, death at workplaces are not statistics; they are people.”

“It’s not a statistics game as to more than and less than death. These are people whose family will grieve and mourn. Communities will grieve and mourn. Workplaces will grieve and mourn. And for the employers, it affects your business in all respects: production, productivity, bad name to your business.

And no more, employers must believe that this is an expense they cannot bear. Failure to bear this expense, you will have greater expense to deal with when people die, or lose limbs or are incapacitated at workplaces,” he noted.

“If we don’t take cognizance of safety and health, more people will die. It’s a simple equation. The more roads we build, the more infrastructure; we expand. If we don’t take precautions, more people will die.”

Among the attendees at the mini exhibition were various stakeholders in OSH such as the Ministry of Public Works, the Guyana Fire Service, ExxonMobil-Guyana, Guyana Forestry Commission, and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), among others.

Additionally, the minister encouraged Guyanese citizens to participate in the annual OSH walk, scheduled for this Sunday. To stay informed, individuals who are interested can visit the Ministry of Labour’s Facebook page.
The theme for OSH Month is, “Ensuring safe and healthy work now in a changing climate: We are running out of time.”