The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is 200-300 years behind on work place safety regulations and training, a Bahamas Safety Alliance director telling Tribune Business there was an urgent need to tackle the issue.

Edsel Armbrister said: “We are about 200-300 years behind. We don’t have worker safety regulations here. You have people falling off the back of vehicles heading to work, people falling off roofs or scaffolding. You go on some jobs and you see workers not even wearing hard hats, no harness, safety glasses or safety gloves.

“In the US, if you leave a nail exposed through wood, that’s a fine. There’s a long list of issues as it relates to just construction safety,” he added.

“When a lot of these big projects come on stream they have to bring in project safety managers. Companies want to make sure that safety measures and policies are there to limit any potential issues down the road, like liability for work-related injuries. They take safety serious, while some people here don’t even want to pay National Insurance.”

Mr Armbrister said Bahamas Safety Alliance (BSA) was formed in late 2010, and developed in response to this country’s need for workplace safety training and certification. He added that more than 250 persons have passed through the BSA programme.

“We really came about as a result of Bahamians not being able to qualify for jobs on major construction projects due to lack of safety credentials and certificates,” Mr Armbrister said.

“People can’t get on a job to operate cranes, for example, without being certified. We have often gotten by on who we know; people only want to know you have the machine and can get the job done. In the US, it’s not done like that. They want to know you are certified to operate machinery and know what you are doing.

“We need to be more proactive on these things. We can’t just sit back and wait for an industrial accident to happen,” Mr Armbrister added. “I have seen the need for safety training here.

“We provide training in construction safety and others safety aspects. We want to go to the next level. Bahamas Safety Alliance has an Associate Safety Professional (ASP) programme, because I have the training done by foreign professionals who have certification to train. I approached all different avenues to show the need for safety in the country, the need for The Bahamas Safety Alliance, and the [benefit]of less industrial claims from the construction field. I’m not going to say we are going to stop all of them because accidents do happen.”