The reach of the Labour Ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health training and edifying initiative has expanded to far-flung communities with the ministry focusing on educating persons now entering the workforce.
During an interview with the News Room on Wednesday, the Ministry’s OSH Consultant, Gwenette King said that for the Occupational Safety and Health Month, observed in April, the ministry targeted the workplaces beyond Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
This meant areas saturated with work sites that require due diligence for operations were targeted during these outreaches. The ministry established officers within these regions with the aim of providing an on-site representative to conduct inspections and assist with reports. However, King said the ministry is going beyond that and conducted outreaches, which had high turnout.
“We’ve had a number of outreaches in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), that is the Pomeroon area, we’ve had outreaches in Region Five, we’ve had outreaches in Region Six (Mahaica-Berbice) – Orealla, so we have tried to encourage those persons in the agriculture sector, the schools those areas, we have the outreaches done [there], we sensitise them about safety and health,” King said.
While mentioning that the Labour Ministry ramped up its efforts to educate persons about occupation health and safety this year, King said some notable outreaches were conducted at Kubanna Village, Santa Cruiz Village Centre, Arapoka, Santa Rosa and the Kumaka District hospital, located in the Moruca sub-district, Region One (Barima-Waini).
According to King, the ministry is considering edifying persons before they start working. She noted that the need for persons to understand occupational health and safety before entering the industrial workforce is critical in the prevention of worksite accidents and incidents.
“One of the things that we wanted to do and would like to do is the school to work transition whereby fifth formers or sixth formers, we do some sessions with them so that when they get into the world of work, they know what is expected of them,” King said.
She said this way the upcoming workers will know the safety requirements expected when conducting certain jobs.
She explained that while this is not yet conducted in schools, the ministry conducts several activities that involve students, which is supported by the Ministry of Education, such as a competition that allows students to debate on topics in accordance with Occupational Safety and Health month in Guyana.
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