Work at height rules to be fast-tracked amid safety concerns

The government is moving to tighten workplace safety laws, with new Work at Height regulations set to be implemented by September in response to a rise in serious injuries and deaths across the construction and maintenance sectors, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan announced on Monday.

He told journalists that the Labour Department is currently codifying specific safety requirements — such as mandatory harnesses, restraints and guard rails.

While broad safety guidelines exist under the Safety and Health at Work (SHAW) Act, the new regulations would provide the granular detail needed to hold both employers and workers accountable in high-risk environments, he said.

“We’ve had too many—and one is too many, two is too many—but we have more than two people falling from heights, either seriously injuring themselves or worse, losing their lives,” Jordan said. “I’ve passed places and seen people working in very dangerous situations up high. Our position is that we solve issues, but we also try to prevent new issues from happening.”

With Barbados currently experiencing a surge in construction projects, the labour minister noted that the timing is critical. He stressed that the government cannot afford to “take its foot off the accelerator” simply because there has not been a recent incident.

The minister issued a sobering reminder of the human cost of negligence:

“When a person leaves home in the morning to go to work… that person expects to go back home. The people who depend on that person both for financial and emotional support expect them to return. They do not expect that they have to look for $10 000 or $12 000 to bury them. They do not expect to have to fight to get some disability benefit.”

While the legislation will include “stiff penalties” for non-compliance, Jordan appealed for a shift in corporate culture: “We want a change in the culture… not just to avoid a penalty, a fine, or imprisonment, but actually out of respect for workers and their dependents.”

In addition to physical safety, the minister announced that the government was finalising the Protection of Wages Bill, intended to modernise how workers are compensated and to curb “bad behaviour” by unscrupulous employers.

Jordan highlighted a specific, jarring incident that accelerated the need for the bill: a petrol station employee who was reportedly paid her final wages entirely in coins.

“One of the things that delayed us a bit was when an employee at a petrol station was paid her final payment in all coins,” Jordan said.

“Sometimes there are people down the line who make those kind of wicked decisions. We need to encourage more of our owners and senior management to get involved in the BEC so that we can cut out some of that bad behaviour.”

Jordan gave an assurance that neither piece of legislation would be forced through without consultation. Drafts of both the Work at Height regulations and the Protection of Wages Bill would be shared with the BEC and workers’ organisations for feedback.

“This government is built on social dialogue,” he said. “We will make sure that we do good by our employers and that we do good by our workers.”

Final drafts of the Protection of Wages Bill are to be shared with the Social Partnership shortly, said the labour minister in what he described as a comprehensive overhaul of both the physical and financial security of the Barbadian workforce.

(RR)