Chamber concern at change to benefit entitlement for workplace injury

The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise said it was concerned at the proposed amendment to the Social Security Act which would deny an invalidity pension to a worker injured at the workplace if the accident was a result of his negligence.

The Chamber said it appreciated that this amendment may be influenced by the need to instill stricter health and safety measures and precautions.

However it felt it was unfair and detrimental especially to employers in the manufacturing industries where employees were more prone to injury.

In the meantime, the Department of Social Security replied to a statement by the Federation of Industry on this issue and insisted that the amendment was fair with regards to employers, whether private or otherwise.

The department said the amendment to the Social Security Act was intended to ensure that both employers and employees followed health and safety regulations and procedures.

The Chamber said it was the employer's responsibility to ensure that employees followed the right safety procedures. It was an accepted fact that if an employee refused to abide by safety regulations, then the employer had sufficient grounds for dismissal. So, in effect, an employer should theoretically be able to minimise cases of employee negligence.

The Chamber added that although the minister clearly explained the reasons for this amendment, it feared that the ultimate result would be that the negligent employee might not feel the effect of this amendment, because according to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act the employer would still be obliged to pay injury leave for up to 12 months.

In its statement the Social Security Department said that in establishing the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, the government was primarily guided by the standards of safety in the work environment as was required in terms of the provisions of the European Social Charter, to which Malta is a party.

The department pointed out that this amendment referred to the specific situation which regulated entitlement to a social security benefit, and did not affect the conditions of employment in any way.

When the injury resulted from negligence on the part of the employee by disregarding safety precautions, the disqualification of injury benefit effectively meant that the claim for injury benefit was not considered as an injury at work. Just as in the case of injuries occurring outside the place of work, the employee would only be entitled to sickness benefit for the duration of his or her certified incapacity, and not to injury benefit.

Over the years, the department has received a number of complaints by employers themselves alleging that injury benefit was being awarded by the Department of Social Security, even though employers had evidence that the employer took all safety measures required at law, but the employee was negligent and had manifestly contributed to the accident.

Employers also complained that notwithstanding compliance with health and safety regulations on their part, the Social Security Act provided injury benefit indiscriminately. Concurrently, the department received complaints from employees stating that health and safety provisions were not evident at their place of work.