Words of comfort and expressions of condolences to the family of construction worker Andell McGarell will do little to account for his death or protect other workers in Barbados who may be operating in unsafe conditions.
The 50-year-old Guyanese national and Barbados resident lost his life at a construction site in the upscale section of Apes Hill, St James where the average luxury home is valued well over $1 million.
In what one could only imagine was an excruciatingly painful death, McGarell was impaled when he fell from scaffolding.
Details of the incident are said to be still under investigation. We understand the need to exercise some restraint about revealing every detail of the incident, but it is time in this country for us to be more transparent.
There are simply too many built-in obstacles when it comes to disclosures that are really in the public’s interest, and, frankly, they should have a right to know.
The vacuum that is created by consistent efforts to keep the lid on almost everything is stifling. It is as if almost everything is classified as national secrets.
The limit on information surrounding the death of Mr McGarell is reflective of a deeply entrenched problem that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
We take note of the pronouncement by Minister of Labour Mr Colin Jordan, while addressing a Barbados Labour Party St Peter constituency branch meeting over the weekend.
“The death should not be in vain. We should take something from it that could be positive. That would be to make sure our surroundings; our working environment are safe for everybody,” said Mr Jordan.
The minister was also quoted as saying: “I will not go into detail about that particular tragedy because there are investigations ongoing, and it would not be for me to want to say anything to influence whatever the investigation will show up. But I think I owe it to all of us to call on all employers and all workers to make sure that they are working in a safe environment.”
We applaud the efforts of Mr Jordan and his team since his appointment to the role of Minister of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector to modernise labour legislation, boost support for the Employment Rights Tribunal, push for increased resources to the Labour Department, and address matters related to minimum wage across various sectors.
The mammoth role and responsibilities of the Labour Department, we submit, require substantially more resources than currently attend the department.
Failure to significantly boost the manpower, strengthen the legislative powers of labour officers to investigate and enforce the labour laws, will result in a Labour Department that is a mere paper tiger.
We highlighted the importance of greater information sharing with the public as critical to increased awareness by workers and vigilance on the part of companies that employ people in high-risk jobs.
Mr McGarell’s death was not the first on a work site in recent years. Since 2020, the public has been awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the tragic death of Arawak Cement Plant employee Brian Moore. The company said Mr Moore, who was just 22-years-old, died after he and fellow employee Vincent Ellis sustained severe burns during what the cement company described, in a statement, as a “routine operational procedure”.
The College Savannah, St John resident sustained burns to 95 per cent of his body in what would have been an extremely painful ordeal.
Reporting on the incident, this newspaper wrote: “Moore and two other workers were overseeing a Portland cement mixing process – in which raw materials are heated in a kiln to temperatures as high as 1 600 degrees Celsius – when a blockage was observed. The three-man crew took steps to fix the blockage and the hot mixture was expelled, causing injuries to two of the employees.
“Moore, a plant attendant, was completely covered in the hot mix and process supervisor Ellis ‘sustained radiant exposure’.”
Both the company and the Labour Department promised a “thorough investigation” into the December 27, 2020, incident from which Mr Moore died the following day.
To this day, there has been no public disclosure by the Labour Department of its findings, and no details on what it recommended to the company to beef up safety procedures.
Again, the information vacuum is a real problem.
