radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
As the contracts of safety inspectors involved in the Paria Fuel diving tragedy investigation come to an end soon, Nicole Greenidge, the mother of diver Yusuf Henry, is concerned whether this could hamper the ongoing OSHA probe.
OSHA has confirmed that inspectors were working on month-to-month contracts and that the agency only has 17 inspectors when it should have 48.
One inspector has resigned already, having found a better job elsewhere. There are 31 vacancies for inspector ones and three vacancies for inspector twos.
Speaking to Guardian Media, Greenidge said she wanted OSHA to ensure that the inspectors did a thorough job by providing them with the security of tenure.
“I don’t know how to feel right now. I am in support of anything that will bring justice to my son’s situation. We are not doing well. We are just praying right now and we trying to be strong,” Greenidge said.
She said her daughter Afeisha Henry was the only sibling left, as her two other sons, Araghah and Marcus, had died last December.
“My daughter was so protective of her brothers and now she has lost all three of them,” Greenidge added.
She also said the police had offered counselling sessions but to date, they have not received any.
She said the families of the four deceased divers have bonded together and “anything that will bring justice, I will support.”
“We know that with stuff like this, we want a truthful investigation, we want the die-hard facts,” Greenidge said of the probe into the four divers’ deaths on February 25.
“I would feel more comfortable if the same inspectors were kept on the team that is investigating now.”
She said she could not bear to read the account given by survivor Christopher Boodram.
“I started reading it but I couldn’t finish reading it. It is so hard to read it. All I am trying to do is be there for my daughter. I have also reached out to the other families and we are there for one another,” she added.
Guardian Media had reported exclusively the depleted manpower at the OSHA.
Meanwhile, former OSH Inspector Saffraz Ali says the Ministry of Finance and the Government must immediately look into the challenges being faced by OSHA as it relates to job security.
“It is over a year the agency has been operating month-to-month? How long will it take for inspectors to have their three-year contracts? This is untenable. We already saw the resignation of one inspector who was investigating the Paria diving tragedy. How many inspectors will remain? We want to make sure this investigation is protected,” Ali said.
OSHA’s communications and outreach manager Kendall Reid, in an email to Guardian Media, revealed that the agency runs on a structure that hires people on three-year contracts.
“Life in those positions expired in 2019. Since then, the agency has been trying to have these positions renewed. The Ministry of Labour, in consultation with the agency, has submitted the relevant Cabinet Note to Public Management Consultancy Division for onward submission to Cabinet,” Reid said.
“The main challenge is to access the appropriate resources to conduct thorough investigations.”
