OSHA now, not in 2020

OSHA regulations would or should ensure that the causes of these accidents be formerly investigated by qualified personnel, reasons for them be determined and corrective measures put in place to prevent similar occurrences from happening. They should also have fines and other penalties for companies and workers who violate standard safety practices on work sites.

The most recent cases of NFM workers dying from burns they received in explosions at the Wrightson Road facility and the falling death of a Digicel contract worker from a cellular tower should serve to highlight the urgent need for the implementation of this law and applicable rules.

When numerous injuries and deaths are added to those of port workers being crushed by cranes, welders dying in explosions on ships, construction site accidents and oil refinery workers being killed on work sites, we get an ever-growing picture of worker safety not being given the priority it should from the government or the nation’s private sector employers.

As TT becomes more industrialised and a part of the growing globalised economy, the government must take steps to protect workers and the environment from multi-national and other companies that exploit workers in third world countries, with weak safety laws. Remember Dow Chemical in Bopol, India a few years, Exxon Valdes off Alaska and others since then.

The original law was passed in 2000. It is now 2005, so how long does it take to be put into action? If the government feels that these laws need to be amended before being implemented, they should bring the amendments to parliament, get it done and implement them. But they should not use the need for amendments as a stalling tactic, not to implement this vital legislation for the protection of workers.

They should make the passage of these regulations a top priority to protect the workers of the country from unscrupulous employers (to include some government departments and agencies themselves) who may be more concerned about turning a profit than in the safety and welfare of their workers.

Like politics, business too has a morality of its own — maximum profits with minimum outlay. And worker safety is an expense that many employers are not willing to invest in, without a government mandate to do so, especially in a "third world" country like ours, where labour and lives are considered cheap and expendable. One dead, another is there to take his place!

So, it is government’s duty and responsibility to look after the interests of its citizenry as a whole and passage of an amended OSHA bill is needed now, not tomorrow, not next year or even 2020. If not, how many more families will have to endure the agony of losing another loved one to a preventable industrial accident?

KELVIN C JAMES

Port-of-Spain