Development of a Compliance Framework for safety management practices in manufacturing companies in Trinidad and Tobago: An agenda and some findings

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) was assented to in 2004 and amended in 2006. Due to limited resources, the T&T OSH Authority and Agency (OSHA) has largely limited its OSH Act enablement/enforcement efforts to the construction sector, and the manufacturing sector has not been sufficiently enabled to comply. Meanwhile, the thrust for manufacturing sector expansion and productivity improvement continues to place greater demands on these organisations´ safety systems. Therefore, this paper presents an agenda and some findings of research that aims (1) to survey T&T´s manufacturers to establish whether compliant safety management systems (SMS) exist, and to identify significant shortcomings, and (2) to develop an SMS Compliance Framework which T&T´s manufacturers would use to enhance their SMS and evaluate their safety performance. Trial implementation of the SMS Compliance Framework would be done at two invited manufacturing facilities, with the aim of improving the framework´s applicability in T&T. Beyond application within manufacturing companies, the research findings could assist OSHA´s efforts to enable/enforce the OSH Act within the manufacturing sector, and there may be potential extensions in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region.