Xavier Luc Brondon Lallsingh was crushed in an ash-mixer a week ago at Medine Sugar Estate. And now UASI (Union of Artisans of the Sugar Industry) President, Serge Jauffret,
wants the board of Medine to suspend its General Manager until the ongoing inquiry is completed. Jauffret is saying that the safety of temporary workers is being compromised for the sake of a better bottom line. Especially after skilled artisans are being replaced by less-skilled seasonal workers.
What are your views on this?
There is an accumulation of health and safety fatalities/ near misses these days: scaffolding still collapsing, innumerable burns at a well-known metal foundry, people getting killed by their work equipment, potentially dramatic accidents (skip to 04:53) involving heavy vehicles and the like.
ReplyDeleteSo, did any MP find it interesting to question Xavier whether any special consideration has been given to increasing the capacity of the Heath & Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labour...? Ah, Shakeel should have done it? Non? But who will finally wake up to realise that the colonial heritage of 7 or 12 inspectors is nowadays largely insufficient to track down those who contravene the laws? Or a coordination between that Ministry and that of the Environment and Land Transport for ensuring hazardous products are safely hauled through our roads across every kind of residential, industrial and commercial areas... Oh, I diverge, there are no segregated roads here.
In any case, while most media remained factual (even radio sousou, probably because it wasn't first on that scoop) about the accident, why does the number wouann keep taking sides...
In any case, you need not have Madame Kwok talent to see that the way things are going on at the numerous roadworks of these days that there will be more and more blood on the koltar. It's just a question of time, because even the recent death of a Minister's son did not change anything in the way things are administered.
Some machinery needs specialised and trained personnel. So Medine is ultimately responsible, just like th e other employers. It is very ironic that employers cut costs at these levels and employ media specialists for damage control from the bad publicity. I do not see how labout inspectors or the MP can be held responsible. These employers should be sued and their names regularly published as those employers with highest or critical accidents.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous of November 25, 2011 11:16 AM
ReplyDelete"...labout inspectors or the MP can be held responsible."
Ah, they indeed are responsible for the accumulation of events, partially for the individual incidents. Because until and unless the enforcement is properly done with proper follow-up (strict control everywhere at all times), you will not see any improvement because the inaction causes people to forget, no lesson learned from the disaster. It's just like the numerous and completely ineffective laws/regulations enacted in Dodoland (littering, crossing outside zebra-crossing, smoking on public buses, parking on yellow lines, etc...), people heed them only for the duration of an MBC-sponsored 'operation coup de poing'.
Then everybody forgets - just remember how many people got killed on bus terminals, where buses are safest due to relatively low speeds. Even those who are supposed to enforce that crappy regulation. Until another dramatic event happens.
And then the same cycle repeats itself over and over again.
Very naughty comment: do you think these people are doing something for ensuring that there will never be the need to cleaning so much blood from their machines ever again...?
ReplyDeleteHope they and everyone else are doing something. Considering the number of work-related deaths that have happened recently it appears that we now have scant regard for the preservation of life...
ReplyDeleteEnfin! Zo'nn comprend ki bizin tirr manzé kan péna sékirité pou dimounn.
ReplyDeleteUh oh, this will teach me to celebrate too quickly...
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought that rollers were way too slow to ever be able crush a living person!
Mo kwar saem enn pake dimunn pe dimann zot: kuma finn kav ariv enn zafer kumsa?
ReplyDeleteSometimes, we should take example from... not the dog only, but also the driver, for stopping at a pedestrian crossing when someone is about to cross.
ReplyDeleteSadly, despite imposing fines, workplace-related fatalities keep occurring... What about a hard-balled approach like this, the message being "it should send a "clear message" of the importance of workplace safety to all businesses."
ReplyDeleteNow you're talking!
Enn lot lamor atros.
ReplyDelete