Questions linger on the filled vacancies boasted on by the Minister of Labour

It is reported in SN of February 23, that the Minister of Labour boasted in Parliament of having appointed twenty one new Occupational Health & Safety Officers within the past five months and increased the number of Labour Officer from sixteen to twenty six – ten during the same period.

For the very reason the criteria for selection to the vacancies may have been missed (if advertised), one assumes that the recruitment process would have involved specific series of intensive training, particularly with regard to the related legislations. One can hardly help recalling the times when both categories of officers were sent overseas for specialist training, and with their appointment based on formal certification, since included in their respective responsibilities was the obligation to conduct workshops for identified counterparts in employing companies, so as to alert them in turn how to develop and manage each organisation’s safety programmes on the one hand; and in the other instance, how to conduct effective industrial relations, all the moreso in the existence of a proactive union.

The respective job descriptions of the current appointees should make instructive reading.

In the meantime one hopes that the latter will be confirmed as permanent public servants, after the required probationary period, rather than as ‘contracted employees’ who are shown to be so easily disposable. Incidentally, the normal procedure in the case of confirmation (or termination) would involve an evaluation of the probationer’s performance by the immediate supervisor; and certainly not by the authority that would (impulsively perhaps) have initiated the first appointment. At the least both officers would, by the end of their probationary periods, be fully familiar with the relevant ILO conventions.

Sincerely, E.B. John