'Unsafe practices' at health watchdog's new premises

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) is instituting legal proceedings against the workers of a contractor for alleged unsafe practices when using a crane while working on the authority's own new offices in Pietà.

The authority was alerted to the matter by The Times after receiving a photograph of the work in progress.

The authority's chief executive officer, Mark Gauci, said the OHSA wanted to thank The Times for drawing its attention to the unsafe work practices while work was being carried out at its premises.

"On receiving the information, two authority officers were sent on site with specific instructions to investigate the case and to take appropriate action against the responsible parties. However, no such works were being carried out at the time."

The authority was then informed that the photograph had been taken some days prior to it being passed on to The Times. This, Dr Gauci said, could have substantially hampered the investigation of the OHSA, had the contractor been uncooperative or the person who took the photo had not wished to be identified to the authority.

Dr Gauci said that from the photograph it was evident that the crane being used had, in fact, a safety latch holding the cage and the cage was specifically designed to carry people. However, the workers were not wearing any personal protective gear, including a harness which should be attached to the hook holding the cage.

Moreover, no measures were taken to protect the health and safety of passers-by.

Dr Gauci said that according to the OHSA's enforcement policy, prosecution would be undertaken whenever there was reckless disregard of health and safety requirements giving rise to a serious potential of causing harm.

"The authority has investigated the case and given that the persons involved were not employees of the OHSA but were working for a contractor, normal legal proceedings will be taken. In effect, the contractor concerned will be prosecuted," Dr Gauci said.

He said one had to understand that occupational health and safety officers could not be everywhere all the time so the authority relied to a large extent on information passed to it.

It encouraged more people to come forward and inform it whenever there was breach of OHS legislation and an imminent danger of an accident.

However, one also had to keep in mind that information had to be timely and substantiated since mere rhetoric or delayed information were very difficult to follow up and may not allow concrete action to be taken.