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Occupational health and safety is of greatest importance

May 27, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I write you on a matter that I consider to be of supreme importance to the future development of the nation. We often postulate that people are our greatest asset and at other times we like to quote the late Sir Jock Campbell that people are greater than shops, factories and ships.
Occupational health and safety is of greatest importance and should not be sidelined on the altar of expediency. Wherever workers are housed or made to work must always be in locations where their safety and comfort must be such that they can perform without endangering themselves or others. We have laws governing safety in the workplace, but I feel these laws must be revisited urgently and revised where necessary in order to ensure that places of work are indeed safe for the performance of the stated activity.
On a related matter I feel that individual workers must be certificated in the required safety procedures before they can be allowed to perform the given task. Here I refer to welders, fitters, riggers, roof maintainers and all those whose work involves a given and perceptible risk of danger to themselves, fellow workers and the public. It is time the nation goes modern and realizes that for every injured worker the nation loses substantial dollars for health care and convalescing.
Indoor air quality is a serious matter whenever we have persons sitting or performing work in rooms, auditoriums or confined spaces. Employers who have workers in such locations must be mandated to ensure that adequate indoor air quality is at all times present. Air circulation must be reasonable to ensure that workers are comfortable and can readily complete their assigned tasks. In the case of Qualfon, they as employers ought to have ensured that the work area was adequately ventilated. As we go forward we need to establish visible standards for worker safety.
We know jobs are hard to come by, but still the employer has an obligation to ensure worker safety and comfort. Qualfon should have renovated this building to ensure that in case of power failure the place could have been better ventilated. I hope other employers learn from this incident.
Cyril Walker

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