Port of Belize Observes World Safety Day

It’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work and there is a call around the globe for countries to put in place sound and resilient occupational safety and health systems. Locally, the OSH Bill has languished on the back burners – stuck at a consultation stage- since it was first read in the House of Representatives in January 2014.  So, while the occupational safety and health legislation that would minimize risks for workers’ future safety and health emergencies has yet to be enacted, workplaces implement their own safety practices.  Today, the Port of Belize put in place some measures to protect life at the facility. Here’s the report.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Working in ports can be dangerous, even deadly. Things like working at height, falling cargo, and heavy machinery are just a few of the risks that workers and members of the public can be exposed to when they enter a port.

Andy Lane

Andy Lane, C.E.O., Port of Belize

“Fatalities are very common. Fatalities could be people getting squashed between containers that are being moved, being run over by trucks – lift trucks and external trucks; falling from height. These things happen in container terminals and in factories and other industries; these things happen all the time. In my opinion, the majority of these are preventable if you have the right processes in place; the right procedure in place and if you constantly drive the awareness that safety is so very important.”

C.E.O. Andy Lane of the Port of Belize Limited says that’s why they are boosting their safety messages today to drive home the importance of occupational safety on World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Colorful and informative posters, as well as a detailed and updated safety policy, are being used educate workers and the visitors to the facility.

Andy Lane

“People shouldn’t stand on the suspended loads. They need to be mindful of what is above them. People shouldn’t be speeding around the terminal. They shouldn’t be using mobile phones whilst they are operating. They should be free from the influences of drugs and alcohol. We need people to wear the protective equipment which we provide for them and we need them to wear seat belts when they are driving and a whole range of do’s and don’t’s. So, we have created this pictorial overview and we have plastered this in the terminal – these messages in all of the working areas. It is all about creating awareness.”

There is also a renewed monitoring effort to ensure that workers and visitors at the port are complying with these life saving safety and health rules. But even before these posters went up, the Port of Belize Limited says they have had their safety and health protocols in place to protect lives.

Andy Lane

“Generally, we have a good safety record. Today is our fifty-fourth consecutive day that we have not had a lost time accident; a lost time accident meaning that somebody is injured to the extent that they cannot finish work today and come to work tomorrow. So, that’s good. What already exist here and what is built up in the forty years of evolution of the Port of Belize. There are safety systems already in place. The thing with safety is that it is never a finished job and whatever we did well yesterday we can do better tomorrow and we can do even better the day after but it requires very strong messages from the top of the organization down and those messages need to be consistent and frequent because people get into a state where they feel safer than they potentially are.”

As a part of this health and safety awareness culture that is being pushed at the Port of Belize Limited, C.E.O. Lane says that it is about getting everyone to take responsibility.

Andy Lane

“Our ambition is not to merely comply with legislation and law but to exceed that. Our motto here that we mentioned is zero harm. So, what does that really mean? It means that for everybody who enters our facility, we expect that they leave the facility in the same condition that they came in.  As we say right at the bottom here, safety is a shared responsibility. Everybody in this facility, whether you are an employee; a contractor; a visitor; customer; everybody is responsible for safety.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.