Laissez faire to workplace safety

May 24, 2014 Editorial

The Qualfon situation as reported in the media requires some deep reflection from a worker safety perspective. To see the employees milling about the company’s Goedverwagting Public Road premises the afternoon after the incident indicated a degree of confusion that does not bode well for the peace of mind of those directly affected or their families.
It goes without saying that it is a reasonable expectation that the relevant authorities would conduct inspections of every building intended for commercial or public use during the construction phase, and prior to occupancy.
Therefore it is understandable that questions would arise as to how a building which is said to house 300 employees can be permitted to do so without open air ventilation in the form of windows. It may be argued that the proliferation of computers in business demands that a cool temperature be maintained through the installation of air condition units. That is all to the good, but what obtained on Tuesday May 20, 2014 surely raises the issue of forward planning or the lack thereof.
The standby generator is said to have malfunctioned when it was supposed to perform in the emergency of a Guyana Power and Light outage.
What ensued can only be described as a smear on our national conscience. Workers fell ill and had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital. No official of the company seemed prepared to deal with media queries, or to assure the affected employees or concerned relatives that everything humanly possible was being done to bring the situation under control.
In other words, when cool heads were needed there was a marked absence in that regard. People were rushing about with no direction while colleagues collapsed. Like in other areas of national life, it seems as if regulations are expected to be respected and complied with by one set of individuals and corporate bodies, but are totally ignored by the privileged few.
In the recent past, the nation has witnessed employees falling from high-rise buildings under construction; construction materials falling on the public from buildings without construction barricades, and no action which can serve to secure compliance with appropriate regulatory obligations.
What message is being sent to our impressionable young people in these cases of might is right, and in questionable situations where employers fail to maintain a register of their employees’ National Insurance deductions?
In the Qualfon building case, regardless of whether the employer owns the said building or is a tenant, those hapless employees would have signed on anticipating that their employer has a responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance, particularly its safety features. The absence of windows and adequate exit routes flies in the face of those expectations. There are certain essential safety measures and records which buildings should be required to have in place and which should be inspected and reported on annually.
Among those should be safety measure reports, records of maintenance checks, services and repair work to the building, all of which should be kept on the premises and easily accessible for the competent authority from the relevant municipality, and the Fire Service to check for safety measure compliance and operational efficiency.
Among the reasons for ensuring maintenance of various measures are to remedy general wear and tear; reliability of operating systems such as a sprinkler system; to detect faults after a system is commissioned.
Employees, clients/customers and general users of privately-owned commercial or other buildings accessed by the public expect that owners will ensure that all safety equipment, safety fittings or safety measures are maintained and are fulfilling their purpose.
There is no acceptable excuse for any building of this type to be without adequate exits and the paths to them conspicuously displayed. Two other common features of emergent buildings are the proliferation of glass walls reminiscent of North America, and balconies which if not properly maintained have the potential to fail at some stage.
One can only hope (and pray) that the apparent laissez faire approach to building safety would not have been practiced in the installation of these aspects which demand the utmost of safety considerations.

Latest News

Laissez faire to workplace safety

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Wharton’s brilliance propels Chase’s Academic to another Republic...

Seales’ 4 for 5 gives West Indies control...

WARRIORS BOUNCE BACK AGAINST HAMPSHIRE

Victoria go top with second win

GFF and Namilco officially launch Maid Marian...

GFF celebrates the successful completion of...

Features/Columnists

The PPPC does not practice political inclusion

Haiti: Tragically Descending into Deeper Crisis

What’s going on with this $100,000 cash grant?

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Laissez faire to workplace safety

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]