Labour Ministry probes sanitation worker’s death

The Min­istry of Labour has launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the death of san­i­ta­tion work­er De­shawn Joseph, who was killed while on du­ty in Kel­ly Vil­lage last week.

In a state­ment, Labour Min­is­ter Leroy Bap­tiste said the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Agency (OS­HA) has be­gun in­ves­ti­gat­ing the in­ci­dent, which oc­curred around 9.15 pm on May 26 dur­ing garbage col­lec­tion in Kel­ly Vil­lage, Ca­roni.

Bap­tiste ex­pressed con­do­lences to Joseph's fam­i­ly and said the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the in­ci­dent had gen­er­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic con­cern. He said OS­HA, which falls un­der the min­istry's re­mit, was car­ry­ing out in­quiries in ac­cor­dance with its statu­to­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ties un­der the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Act.

Joseph, 20, of Spring­vale, Clax­ton Bay, was killed af­ter be­ing struck and run over by a garbage truck while col­lect­ing refuse along Ra­goonath Street. CCTV footage of the in­ci­dent, which cir­cu­lat­ed wide­ly on so­cial me­dia, showed Joseph ex­it­ing the truck and mov­ing be­hind the ve­hi­cle be­fore he was struck as it re­versed. He died at the scene.

The in­ci­dent sparked ques­tions about safe­ty prac­tices with­in the san­i­ta­tion sec­tor and prompt­ed calls for greater pro­tec­tions for work­ers.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar pre­vi­ous­ly ex­pressed con­do­lences to Joseph's fam­i­ly, de­scrib­ing it as heart­break­ing that a young man who had gone out to earn a liv­ing and sup­port his fam­i­ly nev­er re­turned home. She al­so ref­er­enced the fact that Joseph's girl­friend is preg­nant with their child.

Bap­tiste said the min­istry ful­ly sup­ports OS­HA in car­ry­ing out its leg­isla­tive man­date and as­sured the pub­lic the agency would con­tin­ue ex­er­cis­ing its pow­ers un­der the law as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue.

He said the tragedy should serve as a re­minder to em­ploy­ers, con­trac­tors and those re­spon­si­ble for work­places that work­er safe­ty, health and wel­fare must re­main a para­mount re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

The min­is­ter said safe sys­tems of work, ef­fec­tive su­per­vi­sion, prop­er train­ing, clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion and ap­pro­pri­ate risk-con­trol mea­sures were es­sen­tial to pre­vent­ing work­place in­juries and fa­tal­i­ties.

"The pro­tec­tion of hu­man life must re­main at the cen­tre of every work­place de­ci­sion," Bap­tiste said, adding that work­place deaths have far-reach­ing con­se­quences for fam­i­lies, co-work­ers and com­mu­ni­ties.