The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Director John Pinder said there is no “perfect fix” that could eliminate the likelihood of employees being exposed to COVID-19 on the job as many occupations require personal contact with other people.

His comments came days after Health Minister Renward Wells revealed that the majority of newly confirmed cases on Grand Bahama originated from employee interactions in the workplace.

According to Mr Wells, 26 of the 38 most recently confirmed cases recorded on that island were from employees who worked in the industrial sector as an electrical team.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Mr Pinder said the situation was unfortunate, and the “only thing” workers can do to reduce their risk of contracting the virus, was adhering to the emergency protocols.

“There’s always been a concern over the fact, because essential service workers are on the front line of this thing,” he said. “They will always come into contact with persons who may have been exposed and so we just keep hoping that the necessary protocols will be adhered to”.

Mr Pinder said employers also have a duty to ensure the rules and regulations recommended by health officials are upheld at their respective establishments.

“We have to put more responsibility on the employer to ensure that the temperature testing of persons entering a business establishment is enforced,” he said. “In addition to that, sanitising, practising social distancing, and ensuring that everybody is wearing a mask helps to eliminate some of the risks of employees being exposed. “

He added: “There is no perfect fix to this thing, so we’re saddened by the fact that work exposure has happened. But it’s probably going to continue to happen because in some businesses, some part of the job calls for personal contact with other persons, including physical contact.

“For example, when a police officer arrests someone, he can’t give the suspect the handcuffs and tell them to handcuff themselves. For the most part, the officer has to escort the suspect to their vehicle and they have to put the handcuffs on them themselves. So that means they’re coming into close contact with someone who could have potentially been exposed”.

Mr Pinder said he believed there would “never really be a situation” where employees were not exposed to the virus, especially if they were employed as essential workers.

“To be honest with you, when my staff goes out to do inspection – especially on those construction sites – it’s very difficult depending on where a project is in the construction field, to practice social distancing,” he explained. “People have to hold a wood for somebody or a ladder or a wire. There’s several different parts of that job that call for some sort of close contact or in some cases physical contact and so again, persons are put in high-risk situations”.

When asked whether he believed office work was too risky to engage in at this time, Mr Pinder said in the public service sector, the competent authority discourages too many people from being at their place at work at one time.

“Whenever persons can, we encourage them to work from home and for those that do come in the workplace, we try to ensure that they adhere to all the protocols from the health officials. We try to protect the workforce as best as we can because we don’t want anybody catching the virus at work then going home to their families. That causes the amount of persons that are potentially exposed to the virus to be multiplied three or four times.

“So, we discourage a full workload as best as we can. For example, in my department we try to encourage my staff to work digitally from home. I’m glad we have our minister’s blessing on that. He is not one of those ministers who wants to see the department full of staff so we kind of put them on a shift system”.

Mr Pinder said he has also made similar recommendations to local restaurants and food stores.

“They need to probably put people on bi-weekly systems so if someone contracts the virus and they have to shut down for cleaning, they are not forced to shut down their whole operation because all their staff has been exposed,” he explained.

“So, you have some staff working this week and somebody happens to be exposed to the virus and those staff have to be quarantined, all they have to do is bring in the staff for the following week. And ultimately, that will cause more persons to be able to get a salary every other week rather than no salary at all.”

Mr Pinder said at this point, the public can only “hope and pray” that someone finds a “cure” for the virus. Still, he said in the meantime, the country has to learn how to co-exist in the midst of the pandemic since the rest of the world will continue to function.

“We have to adhere to the best practices, including social distancing, the discouraging of social gatherings, the regular hand washing, sanitising and face mask wearing,” he stated. “It is important for us to adhere to those recommendations and those regulations that help prevent us from actually contracting this virus. We can’t eliminate all of the risks that are involved, but we can only, as best as we can, reduce them”.