Thirty to be charged over breach of safety rules

More than 30 entities and persons in the construction industry are to face charges in connection with breach of occupational health and safety legislation, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) said yesterday.

The arraignments will follow a three-day stint of inspections targeting the construction sector.

The authority said that although Malta has registered the highest increase in construction sector activity among EU member states, which could be good news from a commercial point of view, there was a direct association between a higher number of building and construction projects and a steeper amount of work-related accidents, some of which were fatal.

The latest statistics issued by the Department of Social Security for the first three months of this year show that 16 per cent of workplace accidents happened in the construction industry, the second highest after manufacturing.

Between January last year and last February, there were 13 fatal accidents at the place of work, nine of which were on construction sites, according to information given recently in Parliament.

The OHSA has been campaigning on the issue for several months. It has sent personalised information packs to all construction companies registered with the Employment and Training Corporation and to all registered quarry owners. It is also in the middle of a construction "blitz", in which all inspections by OHSA officers are being carried out at construction sites.

The authority called on all the stakeholders involved in the sector, including contractors, project supervisors, self-employed, employees and clients to ensure they abide by the requirements and responsibilities enshrined in the legislation.

Refraining from doing so, it warned, would inevitably lead to an even greater increase in the number of occupational accidents and fatalities.

The authority explained that the client for whom the project is carried out has to appoint a project supervisor for both the design and construction stage, for each and every project undertaken. The client also has to keep and make available health and safety files prepared according to the law.

Contractors are obliged to follow the general health and safety requirements outlined in the regulations as well as take into account directions given by the project supervisor on health and safety matters.

Self-employed persons, such as contractors, have to abide by the general health and safety requirements and also in terms of work equipment and personal protective equipment. They also have to take into account the directions of project supervisors, the OHSA said.