Workplace-related deaths continue to be a major concern for Guyana’s Labour Ministry. As a result, Labour Minister, Joseph Hamilton is calling on companies to enact and subscribe to protocols geared at preventing injuries and fatalities. Within the last three weeks alone, more than three fatalities were recorded. The Ministry has since launched investigations into the circumstances surrounding these deaths.
Minister Hamilton, in expressing his concern at a Bartica logging company yesterday said, “I don’t want to continue to be the death announcement bureau. Since I am minister for ten months, we have sent out nearly 38 to 40 press releases of people dying at work, and I want that to come to an end.”
Since taking office, the Minister has expanded the capacity of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Department with 20 new employees.
Meanwhile, the Labour Ministry is investigating two recent workplace fatalities: the John Fernandes Wharf mishap, which claimed the life of 36-year-old Sheldon Wilson, a truck driver for the Guyana Stockfeeds Inc, and the mining pit collapse that resulted in the death of a miner called ‘Vibes’ of Four Miles, Port Kaituma. The miner’s death is the seventh fatality in the mining sector for the year 2021.
