20 workplace deaths recorded in 2023

A total of 20 workers, mainly from the mining and construction sectors, died last year in workplace accidents, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton said on Tuesday.

According to Hamilton, this figure is lower than previous years.

In 2020, there were 32 workplace deaths; in 2021, the number deceased to 27 deaths and then in 2022, there were 21 deaths.

“Over a three year period we have moved from 32 deaths in that area and now 20 deaths that should not have happened.

“Every death is a person…and so for me I don’t treat these as statistics and that is why we are doing everything possible to ensure that this can be reduced to zero,” Hamilton said during a press conference on Tuesday.

He revealed that most of the deaths are from the mining and construction sectors.

In fact, he said nine of the 20 incidents occurred in the mining sector in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) while six were recorded in the construction sector.

“The bulk of the workplace deaths are in mining and construction and so we are paying a lot of attention to that,” he said.

The remaining five workplace deaths were in the security, vehicular, logging and vulcanising sectors.

Hamilton said the ministry continues to engage workers in all the sectors including miners. He also noted that several joint technical committees were established with partner agencies to address these workplace fatalities.

And this year, he said the ministry and at least one partner body will embark on a medical first aid training for miners.

“… You will have somebody on a mining site, or in a camp who have some first aid training. So that is something that will help,” the Labour Minister explained.

He added, “There is so much we can do but to deal with this matter in a holistic way, the people themselves, they have to do several things.”

Outside of the fatalities, Hamilton said there were 175 non-fatal accidents that were investigated out of the 577 reports received. The majority of these reports emanated from the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Additionally, 950 inspections were conducted at workplaces across the ten administrative regions which affected over 8000 workers.

In instances where breaches of the Occupational Safety and Health Act were identified, Hamilton said the Labour Ministry offered written and verbal advice.