By Paula Lindo

Copyright newsday

Family members of Sunshine Snacks worker Lionel Reis said they are taking it one day at a time, after he died as a result of a workplace accident on September 20.

Reis died after falling from a work basket while doing general warehouse assistance and cleaning-up operations at a finished goods warehouse of Associated Brands Industries Ltd (ABIL), the parent company of Sunshine Snacks, at Bhagoutie Trace, San Juan. Police reports say no harness was observed on his body when they arrived.

Newsday spoke to his common-law wife, Shennel Eccles, on September 22. She said she was on her way back home after identifying Reis’s body.

“An autopsy will be done and they will call us back when they finalise everything.

“The company has reached out to us, but I don’t want to share what they said yet. We have a meeting scheduled with them and anything further I will know on the day of the meeting. We have to give them a date that is more convenient for us.”

Eccles said the family is not coping well.

“We’re not feeling too stable as a family right now. His two kids, they’re not taking it well, but you know they are kids, so, even we not taking it too well at home.

“We’re waiting to see what happens. The family has to come together. We are starting his wake from tomorrow (September 23) and everything else will fall into place as the days go by.”

The company said reports were immediately made to the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) and the police, who are investigating.

Speaking to Newsday via WhatsApp on September 22, ABIL legal officer Johnathan Murray said the company has been communicating with the family on an ongoing basis. He said the human resources and plant managers spoke to Reis’s coworkers earlier in the morning and offered counselling to any staff members that required it.

OSHA communications manager Arlini Timal said the agency could not comment on the ongoing investigation.

“It is customary in these situations for the company where incident took place to make a public statement as the agency cannot speak to any points of the ongoing investigation.

“As ruled by the Privy Council on September 16, the investigation has to be completed in the next six months. Of course it can be completed before that.”

According to the OSHA website, there were 13 fatalities in workplaces between October 2024 and August 2025. Some of these would include the December 22, 2024 partial collapse of Well Services Ltd’s Rig 110, where employee Pete Phillip died and the crushing to death of Damian Ramcharan by a Junior Sammy cement truck at the company’s Claxton Bay work-site on January 17 this year.

There were 61 reported critical accidents in the same period and 1,156 non-critical accidents. There were a total of 1,229 accidents reported, as well as 477 complaints.