13 dead, dozens injured in workplace incidents since January

Some 13 lives were lost due to workplace incidents between January and April 2026, with another 60 persons sustaining injuries – a phenomenon that is quite troubling, according to Labour and Manpower Planning Minister Keoma Griffith.
“While we’ve made significant strides, the statistics for the period of January to April 2026 are deeply troubling. For this period, there have been 13 workplace fatalities and 64 non-fatal incidents. This increase is unacceptable and underscores the urgent need for stricter compliance and health and safety protocols. We must therefore confront this conundrum head-on, and it demands from us a decisive paradigm shift, one that moves us beyond reactive compliance to a culture of proactive prevention, accountability, and zero tolerance for unsafe practices,” the Minister stated.
He was at the time addressing the Occupational Safety and Health Symposium at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, on Tuesday.
On this note, he noted that the Government will continue to strengthen enforcement and compliance in health and safety.
“We will expand the capacity to reach our inspectorate, and we will take the necessary steps to ensure that our legal and policy framework remains responsive, modern, and fully equipped to address evolving workplace risks and fatalities. Occupational safety and health standards must not be optional. They must be rigorously enforced across every sector in our economy.”
However, the Minister noted that between 2020 and 2025, the Ministry conducted 6186 occupational health and safety inspections across high-risk and low-risk sectors.

He added that during that period, more than 27,000 workers benefited from OSH inspections nationwide, thus strengthening prevention and workplace resilience. These efforts, he noted, led to measurable improvements, including a 12.78 per cent decline in work-related fatalities and a near 50 per cent reduction in non-fatal incidents.
“Our commitment has been further reinforced through the signing of Guyana’s third Decent Work Country Programme for 2025 to 2030, in partnership with the International Labour Organization and our national social partners, which places emphasis on strengthening occupational safety and health systems and preventative frameworks.”
Nevertheless, the Minister noted that for far too long, occupational safety and health have been viewed primarily through the lens of physical hazards.
“Today, we recognise that psychosocial risks, stress, burnout, harassment, job insecurity, excessive workloads, and poor organisational culture are just as real and just as dangerous. The evidence is clear.
Poor working environments contribute significantly to mental health challenges,” Griffith further added.

Compliance & prevention
Meanwhile, Griffith added that compliance alone does not protect workers, but rather, prevention does. “Prevention essentially means identifying risks before they occur, designing systems that eliminate hazards, and creating environments where workers can thrive and not just survive. Injury, illness, or stress are not part of the job. They are preventable.”
He added that strong occupational safety and health outcomes require strong leadership, and as such, OSH must not sit in the margins of organisational operations but rather, it must be embedded in all workplace boardrooms. Employers, posited must recognise that good safety and health is not a cost – it is an investment which will ultimately produce healthy workers who are more productive, engaged, and innovative.
Earlier in the month, 46-year-old Radish Domingo, a carpenter from Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara (ECD), was killed while several others were injured after a building under construction at Atlantic Gardens, ECD, collapsed.