Occupational Health and Safety laws must be enforced.

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/editorial.html
Occupational Health and Safety laws must be enforced.
Guyana Chronicle, 17 August 2007

It was indeed disturbing to have learnt of the deplorable working
conditions at a Chinese forestry company in Linden as was reported in
our last Wednesday’s edition.

It was reported: “A young woman, paid $1000 a day, fetches wood with no
gloves, no respiratory mask, and without safety booths or helmets – and
the reality is much the same for the other workers of the Coomaka,
Linden operations of Chinese owned company Bai Shan Lin..”

What is laughable but it a very a serious issue is the excuse given by
the manager for not providing helmets and other safety gear to the
workers..

The manager is reportedly to have said that the reason for this
situation is workers do not return the safety gear they are given. But
his is indeed perplexing. The only way the worker should return the
gear is if he/she leaves the company. However, he did not make this
clear.

This situation is definitely unacceptable as workers in the forestry
industry work under very dangerous and hazardous conditions and
therefore have to be provided with adequate safety gear.

Guyana has very up to date Occupational health and Safety laws and
regulations which a few years ago were brought in accordance with ILO
standards.

Therefore it is incumbent upon both the Ministry of Labour and Ministry
of Agriculture to ensure that this company comply with our laws or face
the full force of the law.

In the first place this should not have happened because labour
inspectors should have been there from day one of the operations to
ascertain whether the company is adhering to our safety and health
laws.

However, it was encouraging to hear from the Minister of Agriculture,
Robert Persaud, who oversees the forestry sector, assuring that every
company is expected to comply with minimum occupational health and
safety regulations of the country and if there are violations ‘we would
take appropriate action”.

We will be waiting to see what course of action will be pursued and how
expeditiously.

While we need foreign investment it cannot be at the expense of th
safety and well being of our workers.