Inadequate risk assessments and lack of safe systems in the workplace are causes of more than 70 per cent of accidents in the manufacturing sector. Minister of Labour and Small and Micro Enterprises Errol McLeod said for the last five years 30 per cent of accidents reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Agency involved people employed in manufacturing.
Delivering the opening address yesterday at the launch of this year's National Occupational Safety and Health Week (April 28-May 4), McLeod said:"Accident investigations conducted by the agency revealed that inadequate risk assessments and failure to implement safe systems of work were contributors in more than 70 per cent of the accidents that involved these persons."
The launch was held yesterday at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.Asked if any measures would be taken to address the matter, McLeod said: "When investigations are done and if people are culpable and found to have contributed, consciously and deliberately to unsafe acts and so on, then certainly the law will take its course."
Other measures, he said, included training, warning and "the kind of programmes that would lift people's consciousness." He said health and safety were a "responsibility for everyone involved in the process." McLeod also said the ministry would work with the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) to host the Excellence in Health, Safety and Environment Awards, open to all organisations in T&T.
This year's event focuses on occupational diseases, which according to International Labour Organisation's (ILO) regional senior specialist, skills and employability Dr Hassan Ndahi, accounted for approximately 2.02 million work-related deaths annually. He added: "The ILO estimates that 160 million cases of non-fatal work-related diseases occur annually."