International Occupational Safety and Health Day is being celebrated today April 28, 2023, under the theme: ‘A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work‘. The theme recognizes the inalienable rights of workers to execute their duties in safe and conducive work environments.
As a Trade Union the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) is in the vanguard representing the interest of the workers and continues to implore the Government, the Employer to improve the working conditions for workers. In order to ensure that the work environment is safe and conducive for work. Workplaces must be free of hazard, exposure to chemical substances and most importantly be stress free.
The GPSU has been calling on the Government, the Employer, for more than a decade to improve the working conditions of public sector workers. These requests include but are not limited to the provision of proper lunch room facilities, adequate washroom facilities, stocked first aid kits and trained first aiders, suitable personal protective equipment, which are all in keeping with the employer’s responsibilities stated in the Occupational Safety and Health Act # 32 0f 1997.
The Union, most recently, was forced to remind the President of its proposals made for the improvement of the working conditions for health care workers, which unfortunately to date have not been enhanced, even as Guyana and the rest of the world celebrate another Occupational Safety and Health Day. More emphases must be place on the enforcement of the OSH Act # 32 of 1997.
The GPSU is also concerned with the number of reported and non-reported workplace accidents and fatalities. The Union strongly supports the establishment of Joint Workplace Safety and Health Committee and Representative as required by Section 23 of the OSH Act. The Union also strongly believes that more OSH training should be done within workplaces not only for the benefit workers but equally for the employer and their representatives. Occupational Safety and Health should be part of employers and employees culture. Workers should be encourage to report immediately all unsafe practices and bring to the attention of the employer / representatives any hazardous condition before refusing to perform duties under unsafe condition.
‘A safe and healthy working environment’, as adumbrated in the theme is one of five fundamental principles and rights at work as outlined by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The other equally important principles for the wellbeing of the worker are:
ü Freedom of Association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
ü The elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory Labour;
ü The effective abolition of child Labour; and
ü The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
It can be gleaned from the foregoing that there is an explicit relationship between the right to work in a safe and conducive environment and the right to collective bargaining that is being unilaterally denied by Government. As opposed to this, there is an inverse relationship between security of tenure and Government’s preferred contract employment, laced with political excursions within the public sector which is in breach of the Constitution of Guyana and also the replacement of career professional Public Sector Employees.
These undesirable factors have certainly impacted the state of health in the Public Sector and have undoubtedly traumatized and disillusioned its operatives and working relationships. In this regard, Government’s attitude to workers in Public Sector must be improve in order to enhance their physical and mental wellbeing, while seeking to be compliant and identified with United Nations best practices.
As Guyana celebrates Occupational Safety and Health throughout the month of April 2023, GPSU is challenging the Ministry of Labour to establish Joint Workplace Safety and Health Committees in all workplaces `throughout the Public Sector and to execute continuous training programmes. Such events could also be undertaken over the remainder of the year to ensure that employees and employers representatives understand and indoctrinate themselves in the culture of safety and health, as a way forward.
It is opportune to end this message with expressions of goodwill and a quote from an ancient Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, Marcus Tellius Cicero, who proclaimed that “The safety of the people shall be the highest law”.
Stay Safe and Be Healthy!
