A Task Force on Workers Health in the Caribbean Community has defined the framework of operation for workers’ health in the region to include the drafting of a model policy on Workers Health to guide Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in developing their National Plans of Action.
The set of recommendations include a multipartite monitoring mechanism to guide the development process of the national programmes at both national and regional levels.
The Task Force met at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown on 22-23 July last when they developed their proposals which will be taken for approval to the CARICOM Health Ministers who are due to meet in September.
Participating in the deliberations were representatives from five Member States, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. The Health and Labour Sections of the CARICOM Secretariat along with the Pan American Health Organisation, the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, the Caribbean Office of the International Labour Organisation, the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute, the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the National Insurance Scheme of Guyana also lent their expertise in defining the framework for operationalisation of workers’ health plans in CARICOM Member States.
The deliberations of the Task Force included strategies to promote the implementation of national plans of action, including the achievement of the objectives on Workers’ Health under the Caribbean Cooperation in Health (CCH II) Initiative.
Health Promotion strategies in the work environment are among the areas the Task Force is recommending for development. Training too is also being proposed for priority attention, and the Task Force recommended training in Workers Health at all levels of the national system, stressing the need for developing regional education programmes to meet the needs of Member States.
The Task Force also placed special emphasis on research in the area of ergonomics, and identified this as part of the overall development and strengthening of information systems in Member States which the forum saw as crucial to the process of planning and implementation of Workers Health activities at all levels.
