Jaristotle's Jottings | A question of quality

The deadly fire that enveloped Heaven’s FESCO petrol station in Mandeville in late February was, to say the least, the result of a series of things that appeared to have gone awry that afternoon. From a video that I viewed, and which purportedly captured the events just prior to the sparking of the disaster, petrol began leaking from one of the pumps. Onlookers, motorists and workers alike became more interested in capturing the events on their cell phones than giving thought to the potential dangers that the spillage presented.

The video depicts a rather casual attitude on the part of some of the gas station workers. Common sense would suggest that they should have been getting the area evacuated, having motorists switch off their vehicles’ ignition, and encouraging those using cell phones to desist from doing so. Alas, that was not the case.

That incident is in many ways similar to the explosion which occurred during a cylinder refilling operation at the Villa Road Primary School, also in Mandeville, wherein a Petcom employee was killed. And let’s not forget the December 1985 tragedy at a local shopping centre when a cylinder being used to fill balloons exploded, killing eight people and injuring many others.

These incidents have some causative factors in common. Some may say carelessness. Yes, that may be so, but then it begs the question: carelessness on whose part, the employees, the employers or the ‘facilitators’? You be the judge.

Deficiencies

The reality within our local labour market is rather dire. Employment is critical to the economic well-being of our citizenry, and while some employers want quality employees, that quality factor is often a fleeting illusion, owing to the sad state of our education system. On the other hand, there are employers who do not place sufficient emphasis on quality because they are quite satisfied to pay peanuts to minimally qualified employees.

That said, one can reasonably expect that where we encounter employees with minimal educational capacity, such minimum wage earners are not necessarily going to comprehend the safety, security and service standards that customers require. This comprehension is especially critical in service industries where there is an added element of danger: gas stations, cooking gas refilling operations et al.

Situational awareness

Whenever customers contract suppliers to provide certain services, those customers expect the suppliers to be sufficiently versed in the safety procedures relevant to their business. All too often, however, customers fail to pay sufficient attention to the common sense safety requirements and alas, tragedy strikes.

When dispensing inherently dangerous services, adequate safety precautions should be a matter of routine, service representatives should be versed in preventive and emergency procedures, and employers should be able to vouch for the competence of their employees. Is this necessarily the case? I think not.

As consumers, we should also be aware of basic, common-sense safety requirements, and where these are being ignored, we should either leave the scene or, if bold enough, attempt to address the non-compliance. Unfortunately, ignorance is so pervasive throughout our society that efforts to address such non-compliance can become problematic. Choose your battles wisely.

Prevention

Where do we go from here? Common sense would suggest that in any service industry which carries an inherent risk owing to the nature of the operations or products, there should be minimum prescribed standards for employers and employees, as well as an audit regime to ensure compliance. Basic among these standards are educational capacity and the ability to comprehend critical safety standards.

These tragic incidents having occurred, it is my hope that key lessons will have been learnt and that mandatory implementation of standards will become reality. Let’s avoid having anything else blowing up in our faces.

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