City Hall Painter’s Safety Concerns Raised as Image of Roped Worker Surfaces

With the Occupational and Safety Health Bill still up in the air, the image of a man secured by ropes as opposed to using a scaffold would give anyone goose bumps.  That is the image that began circulating today on social media.  To make matters worse, the man who was suspended using ropes, was painting the City Hall building in Belize City.  It is one of those things that make you go, ‘hmmm’.  For Mayor Bernard Wagner, however, he told the media that he was furious when the situation was brought to his attention.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “ The City Hall needed some repainting and maintenance and went about it. We engaged a individual entity. don’t decide who does it, who gets it but it’s unfortunate that the individual wasn’t considering safety of his workers and that is a labor issue, that is a matter with him but it reflects on us because we are paying money to get it painted but he utilizes that type of apparatus. He was using the scaffold at the back but I don’t know what happened at the front and when I saw that I was shocked. It’s unfortunate. It’s poor decision making obviously poor decision and I don’t condone it and I would never countenance that. I am pissed with it. We hired you to get the painting of the City Hall done. My city administrator is raising it with him. I believe labor had even stepped in as well in respect to safety of workers and so he will have to answer to that. I am disappointed.” 

Love News confirmed this evening that the City Administrator did dialogue with the contractor for better practices.