NTUCB Says It’s been Too Long Without OSH on the Job  

Over the weekend another man lost his life while at work while undertaking an occupational risk. The incident has prompted the National Trade Union Congress of Belize to ask when the Occupational Safety and Health Bill will become law. President of the NTUCB, Luke Martinez told News Five that while they wait with bated breath for a protective bill to pass into law, more people are dying because their employers are not held accountable to ensure occupational safety.

 

Via phone: Luke Martinez, President, NTUCB

“Belize continues to be one of the countries that seem to not want to have occupational safety and health regulated. And that’s definitely a travesty on our part. And clearly it leads us to wonder how serious our legislators are as it relates to ensuring that we have a safe and healthy working environment. The National Trade Union promised that we are the team that we’ve been pushing this agenda for over a decade and every step we continue to seem to be close, but far, and that’s very concerning to us. Last time we updated the media and the country we were at the Ministry of Labor with the bill where the Chairman of the National Trade Union Congress had submitted our documents to them stating that we’ve come to terms with a lot of the grey areas that were existent and we want this bill to pass now. And the ministry had prepared a Cabinet paper. They shared the Cabinet paper, presented that to Cabinet, and Cabinet forwarded the bill to the Attorney General’s Ministry. Now, this is two months ago, two months ago, right? And while we understand that the technical staff has to ensure that the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed, workers are falling to their deaths, right. And one would argue that the bill is not going to stop people from dying immediately, right. That, for me, is not a valid argument. Once we have safety in all workplaces, we are going to get there.”