The Press also asked BCCI President about occupational health and safety. Eight years ago, the former Barrow Administration tabled its first draft of the Occupational Safety and Health Bill, OSH. It was supposed to legally establish minimum standards for a safer work environment for all Belizean workers. In principle, it is a great idea. Still, after reviewing version 1.0 of the bill, the nation's employers complained that the legislation placed too significant a financial burden on them to ensure occupational safety for their employees.
Since then, the issue has stalled, while the stakeholders, mainly the trade unions and the Chamber, conducted a deep dive into the complexities of the matter and practical solutions to achieve the goals of the bill.
Many years have passed, and now a new government is in office. So, where is the conversation on the OSH bill at this time? The Press asked the Chamber's president today:
Marcello Blake - President, BCCI Executive Council
"We have actually concluded all the reviews, and what we've done now has created a marked-up version of the bill. So instead of having what we were looking at documents and Excel sheets on all of that in different parts, we've compiled all of that into the bill. So there's a marked-up version that the unions are going to review. We've done our review. They will do their final review, and once they've signaled their consent for us, we will then write to the Minister of Local Government and be able to submit then our position jointly for them to consider."
Reporter
"If you could sort to reiterate, the chamber's view is on the importance of this piece of legislation."
Marcello Blake
"It's important for us to continue to look out for our employees and ensure that they're working in a safe environment. But at the same time, it can't be to the detriment of businesses. In the official version, or I should say the original version of the bill, there were quite some steep fines that definitely would have crippled quite a bit of business, but also in there, it shares the onus of the responsibility because the employee is just as responsible as the employer, in cases where there are health and safety issues. And so it's important that we continue to ensure that our members are going to be adhering, but also covered from certain levels of risk where the employee chooses not to utilize the resources that have been given to them by the employer."
