The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) recently conducted a symposium in commemoration of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) month, 2017. The symposium, which was hosted under the theme “Optimise the collection and use of OSH data”, was held at the Cara Lodge Hotel, Quamina Street, Georgetown.
Speakers at the symposium included the Head of the Legal Metrology and Standards Compliance Department, Mr. Shailendra Rai who is also a current member of the National Advisory Council on Safety and Health (NOCOSH). Mr. Rai provided the opening remarks in which he emphasized how important it is for companies to implement good OSH systems to ensure the protection of their employees. He also added that with the hosting of the symposium, he is confident that the information shared would be of benefit to organisations represented at the event.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Power Production and Distributors Incorporated, Mr. Gary Hall was the main speaker at the symposium. He presented on the usefulness of OSH data in guiding company decisions relating to crucial aspects such as performance and risk management.
GNBS Occupational Safety and Health Symposium, 2017
Participants were also informed on the ISO 45001 Standard that is currently being developed to address the implementation of OSH management systems in organisations. This presentation was conducted by Head Conformity Assessment Department of the GNBS, Ms. Rodlyn Semple who encouraged those in attendance to begin considering the possibility of implementing the international standard and becoming certified to it, since it will help their organisations to address and mitigate adverse OSH issues. In addition, Ms. Semple also took the opportunity to demonstrate the evolution of international OSH standards over the last three decades.
According to ISO, the 45001 standard is a new international standard for occupational safety and health (OSH), providing a framework for managing the prevention of death, work-related injury and ill health, with the intended outcome of improving and providing a safe and healthy workplace for workers and persons under an organisation’s control. Regardless of size and industry, the standard will help organisations to design systems to pro-actively prevent injury and ill health. Further, all of its requirements are designed to be integrated into an organisation’s management process.
Participants of the symposium were mainly OSH representatives from the public and private sector and many took the opportunity to share OSH issues and practices, which occur daily at their workplaces.
