Amandala has been reliably informed by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Eddie Webster, that the Public Service, Labour, Trade and Industry Committee of the National Assembly is inviting members of the private sector—which has expressed major concerns over the proposed legislation to address occupational health and safety issues—to a meeting slated for 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, at 6:00 p.m. at the Chateau Caribbean in Belize City.
As our newspaper has previously reported, the Occupational Safety and Health Bill (OSH), 2014 would make it an offence for an employer to endanger the health of its worker, but would also make workers liable for failure to take protective precautions or for creating risky situations to disrupt work.
The Committee, headed by Albert Division area representative Herman Longsworth, met last Thursday morning, and present were several committee members as well as Labour Commissioner Ivan Williams, representative of the Attorney General’s Ministry Nelda Tulcey, and Senator Ray Davis, representing the trade unions. We were told that no one attended from the business community.
The intent of the April 1 meeting is to afford the business community – and especially members of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) – the opportunity to ventilate their concerns before the wider public consultations, which are to be held across the country.
The Chamber said in a statement issued last month, after Prime Minister Dean Barrow introduced the bill in Parliament, that Barrow had warned that, “There will be a tremendous burden and financial cost.” They added that, “This cost would not only be to government but also, ‘to the private sector and to small individual employers; even [for those] that have one person operations to become compliant will cost a great deal of money.’
An example that illustrates the Prime Minister’s comment is that the fines and penalties for non-compliance range from a maximum of $25,000 for a person to $250,000 for a company.”
Our newspaper was informed that at last Thursday’s committee meeting, the discussion centered on bringing the business community onboard with the OSH Bill.
Of note is that Longsworth is serving as pro-tem chair of the committee, replacing former committee chair, Edmond Castro, area representative for Belize Rural North, who was also stripped of his headship over the Belize Airport Authority in the wake of a financial scandal, although Castro has insisted that he did not perpetrate any wrongdoing.