By Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 27th April 2023)-Senior Occupational Safety and Health OSH officer from Trinidad and Tobago Marissa Bhawanie says that “employers have a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and other people who might be affected by their work activities.” She made the disclosure during a CCLCS (Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies) OSHE (Occupational Safety Health and Environment) Week one day professional online seminar on Tuesday 25th April 2023.
Her presentation was entitled: ‘A Safe and Healthy Environment Implications for the Employer Employee.’ As gathered, she is a Director of Occupational Safety and Health for The Tobago House of Assembly, and is also a part time CCLCS lecturer. Bhawanie said a safe working environment is a workplace that is free of hazards and risks to the people working there.
In addition, Bhawanie went on to say that a healthy environment as defined by the WHO in 2010 “is one in which there is not only an absence of harmful conditions that can cause injury and illness but an abundance of health promoting ones.” On the point about the duty of employers to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and other people, she outlined: “So if you have contractors coming into your workplace, if you have visitors to your workplace, as the employer you have the duty to protect their health, safety and welfare as well. Now, the employer must do whatever is reasonably practicable to accomplish this.
They are not expected to eliminate all risk but they do have to do everything that is reasonably practicable to protect persons from harm, and this just means doing what you as the employer is able to reasonably do to ensure the health and safety of workers and others.” She continued: “So, organisations are legally responsible for establishing and maintaining a work environment where employees are able to work safely without risk to their physical and psychological health and welfare. So, they have a legal obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment”.
Bhawanie explained that a tool or mechanism that employers can use to achieve a safe and healthy working environment is through the implementation of an OSH management system. She said the system should include the main elements which should include the policy, organising, planning and implementation, evaluation and action for improvement.
According to her, the management system concept is based on the principle of the ‘PlanCheck -Act’ cycle. “And if you apply this to OSH, the plan part involves the setting of the OSH policy allocation of resources towards health and safety, your hazard identification and risk assessments.
This would come in the Planning stage. The do step refers to the actual implementation and operation of the OSH programme, and the Check step is devoted to measuring if you’re actually achieving the targets that you would have set up, and the Act part causes you to continually review the system in an effort to continually improve your health and safety performance.
She shared that the ILO (International Labour Organization) published in 2001 guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems which can be used to guide employers who want to achieve a safe and healthy working environment. Bhawanie said that coming out of such a management system, a policy needs to be developed.
“A safety and health policy is a document outlining an organisation’s commitment and approach to managing health and safety in the workplace as defined by IOSH [Institution of Occupational Safety and Health] in 2023. Now the policy is ultimately signed off on by the person in charge of the organisation and this shows their commitment towards health and safety.
Now, research has shown that workers are more productive in workplaces that are committed to health and safety. So, if it is shown by the head of the organisation their commitment then you would have it trickling down to the employees in the workplace.” She said employers should prepare in writing their policy regarding the safety and health of persons employed in the organisation.
She highlighted that in Trinidad and Tobago, employers are legally required to
do so if there are 20 or more employees. Bhawanie advised that putting a policy in place should be done “in consultation with the employees so that they can have their input and they are more likely to buy into the implementation of the policy if they have a say or part of the policy.” Front Banner Image: A Senior OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) Officer from Trinidad and Tobago Marissa Bhawanie while making her presentation during a CCLCS (Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies) OSHE (Occupational Safety Health and Environment) Week one day professional online seminar on Tuesday 25th April 2023.
