A lack of inspectors at the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) was identified as the main reason why magistrate’s courts have failed to be properly inspected.
This was disclosed by Carolyn Sancho executive director of OSHA during her contribution at the Joint Select Committee of the Parliament Finance and Legal Affairs inquiry into the adequacy of Magistrates’ Courts facilities.
Sancho said over the years there has been a serious staffing issue in terms of the number of inspectors they would have available to inspect certain places.
She said, “Until recently we only had 16 so we had to then try to deal with higher risk businesses rather than go to the Judiciary.”
“With the Judiciary we have had to seek permission to get into those areas and unless we see that there is something imminently dangerous that’s the only time we will seek to shut down any building because of the nature of the Judiciary business and the domino effect it has before we shut down a courthouse. If there is a shutdown, matters would not be able to be heard because then we would have a backup within the court system so we try our best to see how we can help to improve whatever the conditions are without shutting down the building,” Sancho added.
She said they now have funding to get more inspectors up to a minimum of 29 Inspector 1s, “We also have to fill our Inspector 2 positions and also senior inspector positions as well. We still have vacancies and we have put an ad out in May and we are looking to fill the positions between now and next financial year.”
Sancho however assured that they would help them in getting to that place of compliance especially in the cases where the buildings are very old.
OSHA’s Chief Inspector Arlene John-Seow said inspections at the 26 facilities under the purview of the Magistrates courts have been completed as well as other judiciary buildings.
She noted that when they do their compliance exercises they will identify non-conformance with the act and issue the relevant improvement notices to the various facilities under the Judiciary.
She disclosed that currently the OSHA team and the Judiciary are in contact and they are currently developing a schedule based on the operations of the magistrate’s courts and the sensitivity of the operations, “So within mid-July we are hoping to commence that programme.”
