Employers need help

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority often publishes the national occupational accident statistics which show that a large number of workers are injured at the workplace every month. These figures are alarming and if one considers that not all accidents are notified to the authority then the problem reaches mammoth proportions.

Do the employers of the victims of these accidents ever evaluate the costs of these accidents?

There are a number of direct and hidden costs both to the employer and the employee that are often neglected. Not to mention the burden on our ever-decreasing social security fund.

Production-oriented employers are known to utilise their resources in the most cost effective manner in order to achieve their production goals. The most valuable of these resources is none other than the worker and whereas a machine requires routine maintenance to function correctly workers require a good health and safety system to ensure they fulfill their duties without risk of being injured in the process.

Injury to a worker can sometimes result in a larger expense than a machine breakdown. Once employers appreciate the cost of an injury then they will accept the fact that occupational injuries must be avoided.

In simple terms, if an employer pays a worker Lm20 a day, he would expect the same value in production output. If this employee gets injured at work and cannot attend to his duties, the employer must still pay him his Lm20 but does not get the same value of production in return. Hence, the expense to the employer, for a lost day, without considering all other expenses, will result in Lm40 (Lm20 paid to the employee plus Lm20 of lost production = -Lm40).

Injuries, of course, are caused by accidents and any time an accident occurs a stoppage or some delay is likely to ensue. So the employers' concern should be the avoidance of these accidents.

But do employers know the technicalities of occupational health and safety?

In the few years prior to the accession of Malta to the European Union, particularly the last three years, the minister responsible for occupational health and safety, with the powers conferred to him by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act and after consulting the OHSA, has made a considerable number of health and safety regulations.

These regulations alone will not reduce the number of accidents at the workplace. Rather than issuing enforcement notices, the OHSA should coach employers into designing adequate health and safety policies and procedures.

Charity begins at home, as they say, and the OHSA's safety officers' visits to schools and the talks to students are definitely a step in the right direction as is the training being provided to government departments, hoping to instill a safety culture in the country's largest employer.

Employers should be told clearly, possibly by the OHSA, what is expected of them. It might not be practically possible for the few safety officers to visit all places of work and inform employers what should be done in the interest of health and safety. Therefore, the OHSA should intensify its marketing campaign in favour of its training calendar to the private sector, thus participating, to some extent, in the reduction of the country's social security bill. A small, but surely useful measure would be to set up a help line or information desk.

The OHSA will appreciate that the printing of its contact details below is done in support of the excellent work, although with limited resources, that has been done so far.

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority, 120, St Ursula Str, Valletta, VLT 02. Tel 2124 7677, fax 2123 2909, e-mail ohsa@gov.mt.

Mr Ebejer is part-time visiting lecturer for the diploma in occupational health and safety at the University of Malta and the Malta College of Science and Technology.