SSA workers’ concerns addressed

A Health and Safety Committee for workers of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) is to be restarted and each truck operated by SSA workers will carry tips about proper hand washing techniques and signs with information about COVID-19.

These are some of the measures agreed on following the closed door talks between the Environment Minister, Trevor Prescod, senior officials from the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW)
and SSA management yesterday.

The meeting came after a work stoppage by SSA staff in the morning over concerns about several health-related issues.

Updating the media about the outcome of the meeting, Sanitation Service Authority’s (SSA) Pubic Relations Officer, Carl Padmore said it was conducted in a “mature manner, reflecting the excellence of what true labour relations are all about.”

He said the Health and Safety Committee when restarted “should be meeting within the next 10 days.”

He also said the workers concerns about COVID-19 were heard and “what measures were in place were stated.”

Additionally, it was agreed that safety tips would be placed in the SSA’s trucks to assist workers with safeguarding themselves.

“The SSA decided that they would make the signage in terms of the tips in larger print so that all could see them. Indeed, the SSA management did have up some signs, but they wanted it bold, and also each truck would now also have stuck on the inside, tips on proper hand washing techniques, as well as the signs in relation to the COVID-19.”

Padmore further shared that a concern was raised about “whose responsibility it was remove infectious waste and this is waste that we would encounter daily on our routes.”

He said the Environment Minister “has promised that he would investigate the matter and he would meet again soon because we are aware that there is an incinerator at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital [where] all infectious waste should go.”(MG)