‘Almost scandalous’ - Davis-Whyte slams decadeslong delay in passing workplace safety bill

A senior trade unionist is questioning the will of the Government to retable and pass the long-awaited Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) Bill, which is intended to improve safety at the workplace.

For decades, there have been discussions between the Government, the trade unions and employers geared towards securing the safety and health of all Jamaican workers.

Helene Davis-Whyte, a former president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) who had been part of those discussions, said the long delay in taking the OSH Bill to Parliament, debating and passing it, was bordering on being scandalous.

“They just need to take the bull by the horn at this point in time and carry through the passing of the legislation,” Davis Whyte said in a Gleaner interview.

“It would appear to me that the will to do it is not there and that, to me, is almost scandalous, simply because of the blowback arising from this delay. Because it is the workers who suffer, because they do not have the regulations in place that can actually protect them in terms of what should or should not be done,” the veteran trade unionist added.

Earlier this month, 58-year-old Clifton Archibald James was crushed by a truck while working on the Montego Bay Perimeter Road project in St James. This prompted Works Minister Robert Morgan to call for a thorough investigation. He said the tragedy should never have occurred on “any of our worksites”.

Reports at the time indicated that James was carrying out measurements when a motor truck reversed into him.

A labourer also lost his life and another was seriously injured while carrying out construction work at the Balcombe Drive Primary School in St Andrew days before the start of the new school year.

Since the tabling of the OSH Bill in 2018 and its subsequent withdrawal owing to concerns raised by employers, commitments have been made to retable the proposed measure.

In May, Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr said his ministry and the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel had finalised a settled draft of the OSH Bill.

“Our aim is to present this bill to the Legislative Committee, table it before this honourable House, and to do so as quickly as possible,” Charles said at the time.

Noting that there remained about six months before the end of the parliamentary year, Davis Whyte said she is hoping that the minister’s commitment would hold true and the bill is tabled in Parliament.

Extensive deliberations on the OSH Bill were held by a joint select committee of Parliament beginning in late 2018 to review clauses, receive public- and private-sector submissions, and address employer and employee obligations.

Davis Whyte said apart from tripartite discussions on the bill, the draft legislation had the input of the International Labour Organization.

President of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation Wayne Chen said it was in the employer’s interest to have safety at the workplace.

He argued that whether there was OSH legislation or not, the rights of people at their place of employment is well established in common law.

“While we are anxious for what we have long agreed in the tripartite set-up to be enacted, I don’t want Jamaica to be scared, thinking that workers have no protection,” he stressed.

However, in drafting the OSH proposed statute, Chen is cautioning against copying and pasting regulations from other jurisdictions that are not practicable in Jamaica.

He also cautioned against not applying the law evenly across the board, noting that resource constraints may lead to the authorities targeting businesses in the formal sector while operators in the informal sector go unregulated.

“Our concerns have typically been centred on the cost of compliance and the lack of the mechanism to make sure that the cost of these regulations are applied to everyone, so that it does not become a competitive advantage or disadvantage,” he added.

In the 2021 Throne Speech, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen said: “The Government remains steadfast and committed to the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Bill to protect workers and other persons from harm to their safety, health and welfare through the elimination or minimisation of hazards, serious injury, or risks arising out of, or in connection with activities at workplaces.”

In 2025, Sir Patrick signalled legislative progress had been made with the Occupational Safety and Health Bill to improve workplace safety.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Bill has progressed through multiple drafting stages and is expected to proceed to Parliament in 2026-2027,” the governor general said in this year’s Throne Speech.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com