Let's reserve our safety salutations until they are deserved

Let’s reserve our safety salutations until they are deserved

Sep 23, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Your front page photo in Kaieteur News on Friday and the comment, “This contractor should be saluted” bears a sad reflection on the attitude to safety practices here in Guyana.

Not wishing to wrongside someone trying to do a job of work, but look at the man standing up on the top of the rail at the left! Look at the other two men working at height on the top rail!

Are they wearing safety harnesses? It doesn’t look like it! Are they wearing proper personal protection equipment (PPE)? Hard to say. Have they done a course in Working at Heights? Do they know the dangers they are risking? Have they got a Work Permit open for Working at Heights? Does their Company even have a Permit to Work system? Have they done a Risk Assessment for this job, is there a Job Safety Analysis existent within the Company, does the Company have a written Safety Policy, have the workers conducted and signed a documented Toolbox Talk before they started work? Is there a methodology within the Company to monitor and extract safety data from the above? Where is the Safety Officer? Do they even have one?

There is no way ever that workers are allowed to work in this unsafe way in other jurisdictions without heavy penalties on the employer.
We have a long way to go….

Peter Bouchard

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