Labour officers receive training in Antigua
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Labour officers receive training in Antigua |
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Contact: Kerwin Xavier
Wednesday 21 September 2011 – Saint Lucia can now hold its own with labour officers who are equipped with the knowledge and skill-sets to deal with work place related hazards. The officers from the labour department received the requisite training at a regional workshop held in Antigua recently. Deputy Labour Commissioner Ray Narcisse told the GIS, that the training in Antigua in occupational health and safety inspection, focussed on the identification of hazards—like vibrations, noise and poor lighting in the workplace—and how labour officers must deal with those hazards.
“You know like vibration noise, poor lighting etc. and other hazards. Now that is important because a major part of the work of Labour Officers is to do inspections. And we have been doing inspections for years now, but what we've noticed is that some of the issues we meet or we discuss in those inspections might be beyond the scope of Labour Officers, so we have to increase our knowledge and that is the whole reason for that training in Antigua.”
According to the Deputy Labour Commissioner, the department is already benefiting from the Antigua workshop –utilizing its in-house expertise to further enhance the capacity of other members of staff.
“Out of that training our health and safety expert was able to organize other additional training in Saint Lucia. We have had internal training for all health and safety officers on aspects of identifying, investigating, and reporting hazards. The ultimate objective is to equip labour officers to be better able to meet existing challenges. We want to do a good job but to do a good job we must be equipped with knowledge and the skills to do that.”
Narcisse says the current thrust on capacity building is aimed at providing the public with a more efficient service.
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