Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
When it comes to health and safety in the workplace, Labour Minister Stephen McClashie says his ministry is working on drafting new legislation.
Two years after safety concerns were raised following the Paria diving tragedy which involved the deaths of four divers, McClashie revealed the labour ministry was currently working on legislation for personal protective equipment as well as commercial diving regulations.
Having already met with subject-matter experts, he said, they are now moving forward with drafting other parts of the regulations.
McClashie told a Standing Finance Committee yesterday, there are four pieces of regulation also before the cabinet.
He said for 2025, the ministry would be focused on protective clothing and diving as priorities.
McClashie said, “We have two pieces of regulations that we are currently working on which is the personal protective equipment and the commercial diving regulations. We already have four other pieces of regulation that we have before Cabinet and, as you would appreciate, you would have to roll out regulations on a phased basis based on what our priorities are. Protective clothing and diving are our priorities for 2025 and we would have already had consultations in 2024 where we would have brought down subject-matter experts and we would have met on a full consultation, and we are now moving on the other parts of building the regulation.”
Asked by the Opposition whether or not the ministry was considering recruiting health and safety inspectors and deep-sea diving specialists, he said no.
“Not at this time. However, we have just completed some work and public consultations on arriving at a regulation for diving and coming out of that we will then determine whether we need to fill those positions with specialists.” He added.
In response, the opposition pleaded with the minister to keep to his word to ensure that an incident like the Paria diving tragedy of February 2022 never occurs again..