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Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 21, 2017 (SKNIS): The Department of Labour will ramp up its usual awareness of issues surrounding Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) as it joins with international partners to commemorate the 2017 World Day for Safety and Health at Work, next week.

According to www.un.org, the day is observed annually on April 28, and was designed to promote safe, healthy and decent work. It has been observed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) since 2003.

Promoting safe, healthy and decent work is something that should be respected by construction companies all over the world and on every day of the year. By not having a safe working environment for your workers, it could result in a serious injury and one that you could be facing repercussions for. Construction managers should make it a priority of theirs to think about getting in touch with someone similar to Sheffield Safety & Loss Control who will be able to share with you their safety expertise when it comes to a large scale project so that everyone has the chance to work in a safe working environment. They should also ensure that employees adhere to the necessary health and safety requirements needed for the job, ensure that they are properly trained to use any equipment required, and work with the safety of themselves and their co-workers in mind. A workplace accident could have dire consequences for anyone who finds themselves in such a situation as there are many factors that could result from a workplace injury, such as medical bills, loss of income, etc. A workplace injury will usually mean an injured worker should be able to get compensation either through workers’ comp or with the help of a personal injury lawyer.

Officials at the St. Kitts Department of Labour have partnered with the ILO, and the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board along with the department’s tripartite constituents – the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union, and the St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce, – to mark the event through a series of activities.

They begin on Sunday April 23 with a radio and television broadcast by the Senior Minister and Minister of Labour in the Federal Cabinet, Honourable Vance Amory. The address is expected to touch on efforts by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to transform the work environment under the decent work agenda. Partners will be challenged to aid the transformation. The day will also hopefully make workers more aware of basic things they can do to improve their own safety. For example, going on footwear 4 workers and finding a sensible pair of boots to work in that will protect their feet as they work. While the construction companies need to make sure they do everything they can to keep the labourers safe, the workers can also make an effort to decrease the risk of injury. Luckily there is construction software that could help construction managers keep track of their workers, promote tool box topics, encourage a safe working environment.

World Day for Safety and Heath falls on a Friday this year. T-shirt Awareness Day will help to remind/educate the public on the matter. An awareness display will also be mounted at the Labour Department on Church Street, and a radio broadcast will add to the promotion of the issues. A seminar will also be held on April 28, at the Conference Room of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Department. Forty participants from the manufacturing, hospitality and construction sectors will participate. A church service on Sunday April 30, wraps up the activities.

“The time has come for us to begin to focus on the critical need to improve our capacity to collect and utilize reliable occupational safety and health data,” a labour official said. “We recognize that the collection and utilization of reliable OSH data is indispensable for the detection of new hazards and emerging risks, the identification of hazardous sectors, the development of preventative measures, as well as the implementation of policies, systems and programmes at international, national and enterprise levels. OSH data provides the basis for setting priorities and measuring progress.”

This fits into the theme for the 2017 World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which is “Optimize the Collection and Use of OSH Data.”

The working population therefore should expect to see labour officers visiting their respective places of work more frequently as they conduct site inspections to ensure the environment is safe and healthy.