Concerned by a disturbing number of incidents where workers have fallen from heights, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan says Government will soon introduce specific legislation to address this issue.
He made the announcement yesterday while delivering the feature address at the Barbados Employers’ Confederation’s (BEC) 70th anniversary celebrations launch at its headquarters in Deighton Road, St Michael. The new regulations are expected to be enacted by September.
“We’ve had too many . . . people falling from heights, either seriously injuring themselves or worse, losing their lives. So under the Safety and Health at Work (SHAW) Act, we will be, we’ve started already, developing a work at height regulation,” Jordan said, adding that drafts of the legislation will be shared with the BEC for comments and input.
Unsafe practices
He explained that the new regulations will focus on mandating the use of safety equipment such as restraints and harnesses, citing the continued prevalence of unsafe practices.
“We still have too many people working at height without guardrails, without protection. We recognise that it is not just the responsibility of the employer, it’s also the responsibility of the worker.”
Acknowledging that human error plays a role, the minister added: “We know that people, we take chances. You know, we figure nothing can happen and sometimes we take chances, but every now and then somebody is injured badly, somebody dies. We believe that as a Government, we have a responsibility to make sure that we do all that we can to prevent that from happening. We’ve got to help people.”
Recalling recent incidents, Jordan said it was only by “large mercy” that there have not been more fatalities. He stressed that Government could not become complacent simply because there had been a lull in accidents recently.
“The fact that nobody has fallen in the last two months is not sufficient for us to take our foot off of that . . . . We still have to make sure that it doesn’t happen again in the future,” he insisted.
With the island currently undergoing significant infrastructural development, he emphasised the timeliness of the regulations.
“Especially when Barbados is a construction site, as we know it, and it will be for many months and possibly years to come. There will be a lot of construction. People will be working at height and we have to make sure that we put in place those regulations.”
While the existing SHAW Act speaks to the provision of a safe environment, the minister said the new legislation would provide the necessary specificity. He drew parallels to recent regulations implemented for gas station workers.
“Just as we were very specific with respect to PPE (personal protective equipment), very specific with respect to gas station workers . . . while there is legislation that says gas station workers should be protected, we enacted a regulation, which says that they must be allowed to have medical examination, annually, at no cost to themselves because we need to be as specific as that,” he explained.
Jordan called on contractors, particularly in the construction industry, to ensure workers were safely equipped, reminding them of the human cost of negligence.
“The people who depend on that person for support, both financial support and emotional support, expect that person to come back home. They do not expect that they have to look for $10 000 or $12 000 to bury the person. They do not expect to have to be fighting up to get some disability benefit.
“We’ve got to make sure that employers, contractors, see the workers as human beings, and just as themselves, would not want to put them in a situation where they’re at some elevated risk of injury or death.”
He cautioned that stiff penalties would be in place for non-compliance, though he expressed a preference for voluntary adherence.
“We are depending on the good nature of people and the work of organisations at the BEC to help with that, so that we don’t have to resort to these stiff penalties. Stiff penalties come in when something has happened. We want a change in the culture, change in approach, a change in how safety, especially workplace safety, is viewed.”
During his address, Jordan also highlighted the broader role of the BEC in maintaining professional standards. He referenced a highly-publicised incident from a few years ago where an employee was paid close to $150 in coins by her employer following a dispute.
“It is important that organisations like the BEC become the voice of employers and bring the order that I spoke to. One of the things that dismayed us a bit was when an employee at a petrol station was paid her final payment in all coins. Now, that is not something that the BEC condones.
“That is why we need to continue to work together to make sure that those not-so-good employers are able to come to a forum where they can have some of that bad behaviour addressed,” he added. (MB)
