MINISTER of Labour and Social Security Shahine Robinson says that the long delayed Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) will be tabled in Parliament by the end of March.

“As a responsive and responsible Administration, we are pushing ahead to ensure that the working environment is on par with international standards,” she told Monday’s signing of a new wage and fringe benefits agreement for building and construction workers through the tripartite Joint Industrial Council (JIC).

Her speech which was read by the ministry’s director of industrial relations and allied services, Karl Wedderburn.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Bill, which is to be tabled in the House before the end of the financial year (March 31), will set parameters within which both employers and workers will be required to work,” she said.

The minister said that the Bill is intended to “level the playing field” and will require compliance from everybody in various workplaces.

“At the same time, it will no doubt seek to enhance our levels of productivity in the various sector,” she added.

The Bill will seek to preserve the rights of workers to seek redress for injuries they receive while in employment, and will impose specific duties on owners/managers to take reasonable precaution to protect the worker by providing equipment or devices that may be necessary for their protection.

It will also require management to inform workers of their requirements for the OSHA by preparing a written Occupational Safety and Health Policy, and display it in a conspicuous location in the workplace.

However, with the Bill’s delay for over a decade now, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Senator Kavan Gayle, says that the unions are hoping that this time the promise will be fulfilled.

In a recent release the BITU noted that the Industrial Safety Section department of the ministry, which has responsibility to monitor and enforce the requirements of the Factories Act, and its accompanying regulations for occupational safety and health in Jamaica, has far outgrown its effectiveness.

The union also pointed out that legislation which guides the functioning of this department — the Factories Regulations, which was instituted in 1961; the Building Operations and Works of Engineering Construction, instituted in 1968; and the Ship and Docks Regulations of 1968 — have also outgrown their usefulness.

The BITU, while acknowledging the work being done by the labour ministry in introducing the Act, recalled that almost two decades have passed since succeeding ministers of labour have been promising its tabling in Parliament.

The union leader said that on each occasion the promise has been that the Bill would be drafted and tabled before the end of respective parliamentary years, but the promise has never been fulfilled.

“Enough time has been spent on drafting this piece of legislation and any further delay would be a signal that it is not a priority for successive governments,” Senator Gayle said.