Barama’s veneer plant ordered closed

Sep 07, 2010 News

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Following the death of an employee last week at the Buck Hall operations, Government has ordered the immediate closure of the veneer plant of Barama Company Limited (BCL), pending the preparation and implementation of new safety measures.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Labour said it ordered the plant closed one week after the incident and the Ministry of Agriculture, which portfolios cover forestry activities, has over the weekend, also issued instructions for operations to cease immediately.
According to Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, a request has also been made to the global umbrella, International Labour Organization (ILO), to provide expert to help with the investigations.
“I am extremely disturbed that there are still many instances where employers allow too many chances to be taken at work-sites by employees. When you take into account the high number of industrial accidents that happen, we can only continue to encourage workers to call us. We will send the inspectors. You don’t even have to give a name…we will come.”
The Minister stressed that government is not afraid or ashamed to address workplace incidents.
“It is our responsibility to regulate and we intend to ensure that we carry out our mandate.”
A team of labour officials, headed by Nadir, is expected to visit the Buck Hall operations tomorrow.
Untrue
Accusations that Jason Fraser, the dead employee, was being paid $18,000 monthly, below the minimum wage, has been refuted by the company, Nadir said. Rather, the amount represents the number of days in a particular month when Fraser started working and this was verified by records provided by the company.
A senior forestry official close to the investigations also said yesterday that Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, wrote BCL’s Chief Executive Officer, Clement Ooi, earlier this week expressing concerns over poor implementation of health and safety practices at the Buck Hall, Essequibo plant.
Kaieteur News was told that the government’s regulator, Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), in a joint probe with other agencies, was unable to ascertain the events leading up to the death of Fraser.
Unconfirmed reports had stated that while two employees were supposed to be manning the wood chipper machine, investigations found that only Fraser was there shortly before he disappeared. His remains were found in the bottom of the machine after a security official at the plant reported smelling a foul odour from the wood chipper machine on Thursday, four days after the man’s disappearance.

No Compromise
The Ministry of Agriculture, in its explanation for the closure to the company’s CEO, stressed that Government is unwilling to compromise or flex on workers’ safety.
In addition to the temporary closure of the veneer plant, authorities have also ordered a halt on all training activities there.
According to the forestry official yesterday, only after the preparation of a written health and safety protocol and its effective implementation that will mandate continuous training for employees, will Government be prepared to allow operations to be recommenced.
Among other things, BCL will also have to prove that it has the capacity to monitor the implementation of the new safety measure. Only after this will government be willing to re-consider the temporary closure of the veneer plant.
Contacted yesterday, Persaud acknowledged that Barama Company has been ordered to temporarily cease operations of the veneer plant until the administration is satisfied that the new measures have been fully implemented.

Deadly company
With four months of the year still to go, Guyana has already recorded an alarming number of industrial deaths. Twenty persons have already been killed so far, five more than the entire last year.
BCL has the highest number of deaths per employer for the year— three persons— with the mining and forestry sectors proving the most dangerous places to work, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the fatalities.
Indications now are that BCL did not look too far for Fraser after he was reported missing since his time card was also not found. With a high incidence of workers just walking off the job, the company may have initially believed that Fraser had left.
However, the incident has left more questions than answers, especially on how the worker ended up in the shredder which opening was reportedly too small.
Grilled on government’s labour inspections on workplace, and especially at Barama, Nadir said that past checks conducted on the company found that there were “good protocols” in place. But as is evident now, like many companies, the implementation of these workplace safety rules and other systems is where the problem lies.
Hinting at logistical and staff shortages of the Ministry, Nadir, in pointing out that it is virtually impossible to be “everywhere at the same time” inspecting, said that his Ministry has been beefing up work place checks within the last number of years.
Regarding the incident at Barama last week, which police and investigators are ruling an accident, Fraser was said to have started working at BCL in mid-June as a boiler operator. This is the same department that handles the chipper machine, which fuels a furnace.
Fraser was last seen on Monday afternoon, August 30, working on one of the chippers.
An employee reportedly saw that there was a problem with the chipper and stopped the conveyor, before reporting the problem to his supervisor.
Checks were made for Fraser but he was not found in his room.
Kaieteur News was told that it was believed then that Fraser had left the job, a common occurrence for employees who are dissatisfied.
However, on Thursday, a security guard called his supervisor early in the morning reporting a nasty smell from the chipper machine that Fraser was last seen working on.
A check on the chipper found wet spots, which included oil and another foul smelling substance.
The police were immediately called in and after taking statements, removed the chipper blades and found Fraser’s remains.
This is not the first time that BCL has come under the microscope.
A few years ago, Government fined loggers, among them, BCL, to the tune of several hundred millions of dollars.
The companies were accused of breaching forestry regulations with illegal logging and other infringements.

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