Fifty-five employees at the Department of Environmental Health‘s Solid Waste Unit took part in the government’s first Workplace Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Culture Survey.
The survey is designed to gather staff feedback on workplace safety, identify potential risks and highlight areas for improvement.
It forms part of the ministry’s wider Health, Safety and Environment Management System, introduced earlier this year and aligned with ISO 45001 occupational health and safety standards.
Health minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said understanding employees’ experiences is essential to improving workplace safety.
“Before we can lead change effectively, we must listen,” she said in a press release. “We must know where the risks lie, where our systems are strong, and where improvements are needed.”
The ministry is also developing standard operating procedures covering incident reporting, risk management and workplace inspections, initially focusing on the Department of Environmental Health.
New workplace health and safety legislation is also being drafted to strengthen protections for workers in both the public and private sectors.
Chief officer Tamara Ebanks said the ministry oversees several high-risk operational areas and is committed to improving safety for employees.
The ministry also highlighted progress at the Mosquito Research and Control Unit, where a safety and compliance officer appointed in 2023 helped increase safety compliance from around 3% to about 40% over two years.
Health, safety and environment specialist Osei Alexander described the survey as an important first step in understanding the existing safety culture before implementing further improvements.
The ministry said it intends to use the programme as a pilot for a wider government approach to health, safety and environmental management, with plans to expand it beyond higher-risk departments to the wider civil service.
