Over the years, both the government and private sector have paid lip service to the critical issue of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) of Workers on the job.

THE NEW TODAY is aware that a team of public sector officials conducted a survey of several government buildings and raised concerns about the conditions in which employees were working.

A report on their findings were submitted to the former New National Party (NNP) administration of Keith Mitchell for action to be taken at workplaces such as the Supreme Court Registry, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the T.A Marryshow Community College (TAMCC) and the Government Printery among others.

Some of the burning issues were addressed, especially severe cases of molding in some of the older buildings.

THE NEW TODAY has been able to obtain a comprehensive report on OSH that was done by a retired senior employee in the Ministry of Labour Reginald Lord that focused on OSH at the workplace.

Following are highlights of the document:-

Preamble
Grenada joined the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1979, a few months after the Grenada Revolution. Grenada has since ratified 26 ILO Conventions, with the earliest, C81 – Labour Inspection Convention, ratified in 1979 and most recently, C155 – Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Convention, ratified in 2012. Convention C155, provides a basis for the government to develop the national OSH policy in consultation with the employers and workers organizations. It requires ILO Members, in the light of national conditions and practice, and in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers, to formulate, implement and periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the working environment.

The promotion of OSH greatly contributes to the improvement in working conditions. Governments and social partners further develop national OSH systems to improve the well-being of workers which will eventually contribute to productivity improvements in enterprises and better-quality products and services. Occupational accidents and disease occur in workplaces across Grenada, in the formal and informal sectors, and in public and private enterprises. Data received from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) indicate the level of occupational accidents and the associated costs. This data is specific to the NIS and does not capture all of those occurring within the informal sector.

Benefit Expenditure by Year and Type

The Ministry of Labour recently revised the Employment Act and the Labour Relations Act and these were presented to Parliament in 2016. An OSH bill has also been drafted, but its enactment will be preceded by a national OSH policy. The new OSH act will repeal the Accidents and Occupational Disease (Notification) Act Chapter 2, the Agricultural Workers Amenities Act Chapter 11, and the Factories Act Chapter 100. It is noted that Grenada has developed a number of other national policies of relevance to this policy, such as:

* Decent workplace policy of Grenada

* GTUC policy on OSH

* Grenada HIV/AIDS policy

* Training policy

* Environment policy

* National drug policy

With the support of the ILO the Department of Labour (DoL) has hosted a number of national tripartite consultations with a view to finalizing this National OSH Policy for Grenada. A first consultation was convened on November 9 and 10, 2016, and the first draft policy was developed on the basis of these discussions. This draft was circulated to all relevant stakeholders for their review. To ensure that there was broad national awareness and support of this draft policy, three (3) consultations were conducted with tripartite representatives and local actors, including representatives of the informal sector and cooperatives, through regions all across Grenada. The draft was finalized during a tripartite workshop held on September 28, 2018, and submitted to the Ministry of Legal Affairs and subsequently to Cabinet for ratification. The National OSH Policy sets out the tripartite vision for OSH, and identifies agreed spheres for action. Grenada is adopting the systems approach to OSH advocated by the ILO Global Strategy which is premised on the PDCA1 cycle. At the national level, the strategy has four elements:

1. Policy, to provide a framework for national-level action to improve OSH.

2. System, to describe available infrastructure and resources.

3. Profile, to describe the national OSH situation.

4. Programme, a time bound 3 to 5 year plan that identifies OSH gaps, and clearly sets out objectives, targets and indicators, and implementation mechanisms.

This systems approach is cyclical, with regular reviews that capture new developments and revise priorities for action.

The national consultations included representation from authorities with OSH-related responsibilities, public and private sector employers and employees, the Employers’ Federation and the Grenada Trade Union Council. The consultations facilitated the sensitisation of participants to the importance of adopting a culture of prevention, where the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels; governments, employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment through a system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties; and the highest priority is accorded to the principle of prevention.

The resulting policy statement has been arrived at by consensus among all stakeholders, is a statement of their commitment to OSH in the work place, and acknowledges their respective roles and responsibilities. The National OSH Policy will be complemented with the OSH profile, which will provide a diagnostic of the existing OSH situation, including national data on occupational accidents and diseases, high-risk industries and occupations, and a description of the national OSH system and its current capacity. Finally, the OSH Programme will include priorities, objectives and targets for improving OSH within a predetermined timeframe, and indicators to assess progress.

Statement
The intention of this policy is to create a proactive safety culture that will reduce the occurrence of near misses, incidents and accidents that may result in personal injury and/or damage to property and the environment within the State of Grenada.

Aim and purpose
The OSH policy will seek to ensure that:

1. There is a safe and healthy work environment and work processes for all workers and users within the State of Grenada.

2. There is a culture of occupational accident and disease prevention that includes information, consultation and training.

3. There are policy orientations to modernize the policies and procedures of the DoL.

Objectives
Foster a positive national culture of OSH at all levels in society, with an emphasis on prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. This implies the inclusion of OSH prevention in education, training and development activities.

Improve productivity and wellbeing of workers through a progressive reduction in the incidence of work related injuries, diseases and fatalities in all sectors of the economy and in all forms of work.

Enhance the legal framework and the enforcement capacities of the relevant institutions to build a modern and dynamic OSH system ensuring that safe and healthy workplaces are provided to all workers.

Create awareness and address psychosocial risks and work-related stress.

Promote coordination amongst institutions with an OSH mandate.

Policy principles

Prevention

Actions arising from this policy will be focused on the prevention of occupational risks rather than compensation, rehabilitation and curative services, giving major attention to risk assessment and control, including the impact of psycho-social risks and work-related stress.

Social Dialogue
The Government will ensure that social partners and other relevant stakeholders are consulted during formulation, implementation and review of all policies, systems and programmes at all levels. Social dialogue will include processes related to administration, compliance and regulation through effective mechanisms of information and consultation.

Equity and gender equality
This policy will be applied in all workplaces and uniformly enforced. Comprehensive consideration of gender issues at all levels will promote equity and equality between men and women so that mainstreaming gender becomes a common practice in all OSH policies and programs.

Collaboration and functional cooperation
Regulatory and implementing agencies will collaborate and communicate with enterprises and each other, to ensure that there is understanding of risks and required mitigation measures to ensure protection of all parties are effectively implemented.

Social partners and relevant stakeholders will collaborate, coordinate and actively participate in OSH initiatives, to effectively integrate interventions.

Knowledge and evidence-based decision making
A preventive safety and health culture will be inculcated across the nation through information dissemination, consultation and training. OSH programmes will be developed with a focus on OSH priorities, determined on the basis of available information. Systems for collection and analysis of representative OSH data will be developed to inform the design of effective and responsive programmes.

Environmental protection and sustainability
This policy recognizes that economic activity has the potential to damage the environment. Workplace operations will be managed sustainably, so as to protect workers and public health.

Continuous improvement
All parties will seek to progressively and actively improve OSH conditions, recognizing that there will be a transition period as OSH awareness and compliance capacity grows. Policies and practices will be updated taking into consideration socio-economic changes, technological progress and new hazards.

Parties covered by the policy
All workers within the State of Grenada are to be covered by this policy, whether full-, part-time or otherwise employed, including interns, the differently abled, prisoners and sub-contractors. Actions derived from this policy will be implemented in every workplace, whether in the public, private or informal sectors, and will be equitable, inclusive and without discrimination. Other persons who have cause to be within the workplace should also derive protection from this policy.

Spheres of action
Demonstrate national high level political commitment to the importance of OSH

The Government will demonstrate its commitment to the importance of OSH, through:

1. Establishment of a tripartite committee to facilitate broad based communication at the national level.

2. Committing requisite resources to the DoL and other relevant regulatory and implementing authorities, to ensure that the OSH legislation, regulations and standards can be effectively administered.

3. Complying with ILO Conventions on OSH that the government has ratified, and maintaining consistency with the ILO Global Strategy on OSH.

4. Providing forums for consultations between employers, workers and community on OSH matters of national importance.

All stakeholders (government, private sector and labour representatives) will provide the resources required to ensure that they may properly fulfill their respective roles under this policy.

Improve legal and regulatory frameworks
The government, in consultation with the social partners, will:

1. Provide a suitable legal and regulatory framework by drafting and enacting legislation, as required, in congruence with international standards and practices.

2. Provide for its enforcement by the various authorities, so as to protect workers including the physically challenged, and the environment.

3. Guarantee protection of workers and their representatives from disciplinary measures in accordance with the Employment Act.

4. Establish standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

5. Incorporate OSH considerations into other national policies, legislation and regulations as appropriate.

Engage in more effective functional cooperation and coordination

The government will:

1. Improve collaboration between regulatory agencies with an inspection role, such as those with a responsibility for fire services, physical planning and health, to ensure that their inspection, reporting and enforcement roles more effectively address OSH concerns. Physical Planning is required to ensure that the design and construction of buildings meet OSH needs. Environmental Heath should collaborate in the inspection and regulation of working spaces, for the protection of occupational and public health.

2. Ensure that the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) data is made available and is used to more effectively develop OSH programmes and other interventions and to help strengthen workplace compliance.

Build capacity to implement effective OSH interventions

The Government will:

1. Ensure that the DoL is staffed with a sufficient number of appropriately qualified Health and Safety Officers to properly fulfill its responsibilities under the revised Employment Act, revised Labour Relations Act, the draft OSH Act and this OSH Policy. In particular, the Ministry of Labour should be equipped to undertake routine workplace inspections, conduct required tests and provide advisory services to enterprises.

2. Ensure that services provided by the DoL are of a similar standard regardless of geographic location. In this regard, services provided to Carriacou and Petite Martinique should be improved as a priority.

3. Build the capacity of other relevant regulatory authorities, to ensure that the requisite support to the DoL can be provided.

4. Build the capacity of social partners to ensure the effective implementation of this policy.

Grenada Trade Union Council) have an important role in advocating and promoting a safe and healthy culture. They negotiate with employers and the government on behalf of workers, educate and train workers and support them in their duties within joint OSH committees and as health and safety representative (HSR).

Ministry of Labour
Governments are responsible for drawing up OSH legislation and policies and ensuring that they are implemented. The Government, through the Ministry of Labour and other relevant ministries, will:

* Ensure the maintenance and promotion of worker’s health and working capacity. National OSH policies and programmes will be regularly revised to ensure continual improvement. Targets will be set, and indicators monitored.

* Develop and regularly revise and update the OSH legal framework, including OSH regulations, in consultation with social partners.

* Provide OSH leadership, and prioritise OSH at the national level through the promotion of a preventive safety and health culture.

* Set a national OSH policy in consultation with social partners and rationalize the legal framework.

Finance public sector OSH requirements, to improve the national OSH system and develop and implement national OSH programmes in collaboration with its partners.

* Provide an accountable and transparent OSH inspectorate and ensure coordination amongst its agencies so as to efficiently provide public OSH services, including provision of advisory services to enterprises and support to OSH committees/representatives in enterprises.

* Ensure that the DoL collaborates with other government agencies and the social partners in the surveillance of workplace conditions, the provision of OSH information and implementation of awareness raising activities.

* Develop a system for collecting, recording, storing, retrieving, analyzing, evaluating, reporting, sharing and disseminating information (on occupational accidents and diseases), and for conducting research.

Ministry of Health
The mission of the Ministry of Health of Grenada is to promote and provide health services that are appropriate, accessible, equitable, and sustainable utilizing suitably qualified and motivated staff committed to excellence and professionalism. The Ministry of Health will support the Ministry of Labour in health promotion at the workplace in the following areas:

* Workers’ health surveillance and working environment surveillance to identify abnormalities and asses environmental factors that might affect workers’ health.

* Health education and health promotion at work by the practice of good personal hygiene and routine physical exercise, good environmental health practices, eating a balanced diet and getting adequate sleep; the cessation of smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, drug abuse, promiscuity, stress, anger, violence and avoidance of other behaviors which are detrimental to life.

* Employment of occupational health practitioners who will establish services in relation to occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, occupational therapy, ergonomics, and psychology, and improve the capability for diagnosis of occupational diseases and identify risk factors.

National Insurance Scheme (NIS)

The NIS will:

* Manage employment injury benefits in accordance with statutory requirements.

* Inform the DoL of any unsafe or unhealthy working conditions they may observe on routine inspection and visits to workplaces.

* Collaborate in public awareness and educational programmes and OSH activities, including the organization of seminars and lectures, in collaboration with DoL, to sensitize workers employers on employment injury benefits.

* Share with the DoL data on employment injury benefits.

* Establish and maintain a communication channel with the Ministries of Labour and Health.

Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of Finance will allocate resources to the Ministries of Labour and Health, as well as to other involved agencies, to implement this policy.

Ministry of Education/National Training Agency

* Mainstream OSH-related education in the curricula of schools, training institutions and universities, including CVQ as appropriate.

* Collaborate with the DoL in setting objectives for mainstreaming OSH into education and in providing professional development in risk education for teachers and trainers.

Fire Department – Royal Grenada Police Force
The services of the Royal Grenada Fire Service will be of paramount importance in implementing this policy. The services will include:

* Written fire prevention and protection policies and programmes in all workplaces for the safety of all workers.

* Workplace inspections for the issuance of compliance certificates to establishments.

* Ensuring proper installation of sprinkler systems and smoke detectors as well as fire extinguishers and fire escapes.

* Training of workers in the efficient use of fire extinguishers and other fire prevention equipment, and in the maintenance of alarms and sprinklers, as well as the procedures to follow in the event of a fire in the workplace.

* Distribution of fire prevention posters, flyers and warnings and direction signs and placing them in strategic locations.

* Ensure that new and remodeled buildings meet fire safety standards, and that all building owners maintain required fire safety equipment.

Physical Development Division – Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Physical Development
Collaborate with the DoL to ensure that new and remodeled buildings meet planning standards related to Grenada OSH.

Bureau of Standards
The Bureau of Standards will elaborate, modify and amend specifications, standards and codes of practice related to safety equipment, machinery, and PPE. It will also collaborate in education programmes and public awareness campaigns in OSH.

Governance, evaluation and review of the policy
The formulation of this policy followed a participatory approach in which social partners and other relevant stakeholders provided inputs for its development. The policy, while being consistent with other national policies and priorities, seeks to promote the right of workers to decent, safe and healthy working conditions and environment. The OSH Policy will be supported by an OSH Programme which will include priorities, objectives and targets to achieve the objectives of this policy.

The implementation of this policy demands effective coordination between the various authorities and bodies designated to implement the policy, as well as with social partners. The establishment of a tripartite committee on OSH will create a forum for discussion and advise the Ministry of Labour in the implementation of the policy. It will also promote inter-sectoral cooperation with relevant stakeholders and consider the revision of the policy. The committee will monitor and evaluate progress towards the achievement of the objectives of this policy.

The OSH policy shall be revised every 5 years or as deemed necessary based on changes in:

1. Legislation
2. Technology
3. International standards and Conventions and/or
4. Any other conditions that may warrant review.

Grenada joined the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1979, a few months after the Grenada Revolution.

Grenada has since ratified 26 ILO Conventions, with the earliest, C81 – Labour Inspection Convention, ratified in 1979 and most recently, C155 – Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Convention, ratified in 2012. Convention C155, provides a basis for the government to develop the national OSH policy in consultation with the employers and workers organizations.

It requires ILO Members, in the light of national conditions and practice, and in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers, to formulate, implement and periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the working environment.

The promotion of OSH greatly contributes to the improvement in working conditions. Governments and social partners further develop national OSH systems to improve the well-being of workers which will eventually contribute to productivity improvements in enterprises and better-quality products and services.

Occupational accidents and disease occur in workplaces across Grenada, in the formal and informal sectors, and in public and private enterprises.

Data received from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) indicate the level of occupational accidents and the associated costs. This data is specific to the NIS and does not capture all of those occurring within the informal sector.