88 vacancies at OSHA out of 152 positions

Labour Minister Stephen Mc Clashie has said 88 out of the 152 positions at the Occupational Safety and Health Agency are vacant.

Among these, he said, is the position of chief inspector, which the ministry hopes to fill within a month and a half.

Mc Clashie was responding to a question from Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh in Parliament on Friday.

He gave a breakdown of the vacancies throughout the organisation.

“There are currently 152 positions on the establishment of the OSH Agency, of which 88 are vacant.

"The classifications are as follows: at the executive level, out of four positions, there are two vacant positions. All of the five senior-management-level positions are currently filled. At the inspectorate level, there are 47 vacant positions out of 72 positions. At the technical support level, there are 33 vacant positions out of 62 positions. And at the auxiliary level, there are six vacant positions out of nine positions.”

Mc Clashie said the vacancy for chief inspector would be filled within a month and a half.

Responding to a question from Indarsingh about whether the former chief inspector had been asked to resign owing to the preliminary results of the report into the investigation of the deaths of four divers at the Paria Fuel compound at Pointe-a-Pierre, Mc Clashie said he had no such information.

“We at the level of the government, we treat with vacancies and people leaving. It happens every day, and the chief inspector has moved on, and we are now seeking to fill that vacancy.”

The OSH Agency had previously said the chief inspector resigned when his contract ended at the beginning of April, as he found the month-to-month contract he was working under untenable.