No regard for Guyanese workers

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No regard for Guyanese workers
Kaieteur News, 21 August 2007

Dear Editor,

I read about the unsafe working conditions at Bai Shan Lin Processing
Company in Linden .

Employers have a duty to take reasonable care of their workers by
providing a safe work environment, a safe system of work, adequate
plant and equipment, and competent staff.

In addition, some Acts of Parliament contain health and safety
provisions for workers in certain kinds of work-places, such as
factories. If you have an accident at work, however small, report it to
whoever keeps the accident book or to the personnel officer.

This protects you later if you find you were injured more seriously
than you thought. If you are injured at work or become ill as a result
of inadequate safety precautions, you can sue your employers for
damages. You will need legal help with this.

In order to get some compensation or damages for injury, ill-health or
the death of a close relative at work, you or the person acting for you
will have to prove to the court that the employer breached her/his duty
to the worker by failing to take reasonable care, and that the injury
occurred as a result of this breach of duty.

Occupational Safety and Health matters are indeed critical issues. New
technologies, new materials and chemicals all pose new problems for
workers, such as the need for safety equipment, together with their use
and servicing, medical check-ups, etc. Of equal importance is knowledge
about the hazards to which workers are now being exposed. What is
important, however, is that there are still too many workers
unknowingly being harmed at their workplaces.

Important to note is that the definition speaks of protecting the
workers. This is so since injuries have led to numerous employees being
permanently disabled, or have resulted in that most finite of the
finalities - death.

As a former trade unionist, I want to prevent accidents, not just be
paid compensation, since accident and ill-health can rob us of the many
pleasures of life that money cannot buy. There is yet another aspect of
the problem. Injuries can incapacitate workers to the extent that they
can no longer perform the work they did prior to the accident, so they
only qualify for “light work”.

As so many workers have lamented – “light work mean light pay, and
financial woes for the family.”

Another dimension of the problem is the countless number of workers who
are sent off the job medically unfit for work, at ages ranging from
45-55 years and before, due to ailments that resulted from earlier
exposure to such things as pesticides, weedicides, asbestos, cement and
lead.

Worst of all, the women and men of Bai Shan Lin Processing Company are
being discriminated for speaking out against their horrible treatment.

Mohamed Khan