A post mortem examination conducted today by Dr. Nehaul Singh at the mortuary of the Georgetown Public Hospital on the body of Royston Souvenir, a former worker at GAICO Construction, revealed his cause of death to be crushing injuries to the chest.
The body has since been handed over to his relatives for burial arrangements to be made.
Guyana Standard would have reported earlier today that the 49-year-old was part of a team helping to construct a wharf to support oil services at the Guyana Shore Base Inc.
Souvenir was reportedly standing behind an excavator that was in operation and was subsequently hit to the chest and abdomen by it. Guyana Standard understands that when he was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, the GAICO worker was pronounced dead on arrival.
During an exclusive interview with this news agency today, Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton related that he received assurances from Managing Director of GAICO, Komal Singh that the Souvenir family would be given assistance with the costs for the burial. He said too that the family would be compensated otherwise for the loss of their loved one but was unable to say what that amount would be. Calls to Singh to ascertain same went unanswered several times.
Despite calls over the last five years being made for the nation to modernize its laws, the archaic legislation remains without any law or policy on compensation for those injured or killed during works related to the sector. There is also no union in place to champion these specific rights.
Hamilton was keen to note nonetheless that the nation’s laws regarding occupational health and safety are being reviewed with the intention of bringing same in line with international standards for the oil sector.
It should be noted that the company did not issue a release to the media regarding the matter except to say that it offers its condolences to the family after the media got word of the tragic news.
