Authority starved of funds and personnel

Labour MP Marie-Louise Coleiro insisted yesterday that the government needed to allocate more funding and trained human resources to the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) if legislation was to be enforced.

She told Parliament during the debate on the authority's financial estimates that it was important that the government invested in this sector, not only because this involved the life and living standards of workers, but also because there was an economic cost when workers suffered occupational accidents. Such costs included lost investment on training as well as the direct costs in compensation and care for the workers involved.

In a situation where Malta had 32,000 workplaces, how was it that the authority still had just eight inspectors? This situation had persisted for far too long. That occupational accidents had not increased did not mean there was room for complacency.

For a start, the authority should employ those people who graduated from the diploma course in health and safety started by the Labour government. It was not enough for the minister to have said that public service workers would be deployed to the authority. Such people needed to be trained in the various specialities of health and safety. And one needed to guard against abuses in the certification of health and safety officers.

As regulations continued to be improved, it was also important for the government to consider the compliance costs which employers had to bear.

Ms Coleiro said the law regulating the OHSA needed to be amended to clearly delineate the duties of its executives. The board should be a policy maker while the executive executed the policies decided by the board.

It was good that the authority had established certain partnerships with government entities, but why were there none with the private sector? These partnerships were aimed at creating and enhancing the authority's own cost-effectiveness. The authority should also forge partnerships with local councils in order to be able to act more effectively with regard to small businesses and even those who worked at home.

It was important that the authority created its own research section to identify new trends and plan its future actions so that it could be proactive and not reactive.

One example of how this could be done was the GWU project surveying repetitive strain injuries on the local scene.

What was very worrying was the fact that even the workers themselves were not sufficiently aware of health and safety. Some preferred to continue to earn money rather than report sick. Others refused to report injuries or abuses for fear of losing their job. Clearly the authority and the Department of Industrial Relations should devise ways to protect such workers. The workers should also be made more aware of their rights.

There also needed to be greater awareness among doctors, including company doctors, of illnesses and conditions, including stress, which stemmed from occupations and long working hours.

Ms Coleiro complained that court prosecutions were taking too long to be decided. A fast track system was needed because the sooner abuse was stopped and punished, the better it would be for everyone. Although administrative fines were being mooted one had to be careful not to implement such a system in the same way as the wardens. While those who abused should be punished, one should not cause exaggerated hardships.

Ms Coleiro said she stood by her comments, made some time ago, that some workers were being made to buy their own safety gear, even though this was supposed to be provided by the employer.

She suggested that the authority should also explore the possibility of reaching partnerships abroad. A partnership was recently reached between the US and Ireland, through which eight Irish companies would be adopting a US-developed voluntary protection programme to encourage work places to develop health and safety practices. Where the programme was adopted in the US, the sickness rate dropped by 50 per cent.

Another initiative the authority could take was to draw up codes of practice together with industry stakeholders. In Ireland a code of practice on the safe operation of cranes had been published.

Ms Coleiro asked if occupational health and safety was ever discussed in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development. Such a discussion would ensure more commitment by stakeholders.

She also asked if the OHSA worked in coordination with Sedqa on drugs and other substances which could be used by workers. Ms Coleiro, like the minister earlier, also paid tribute to the work done by outgoing OHSA authority chairman Joanna Drake.

Replying at the end of the debate, Education and Employment Minister Louis Galea said he agreed that the authority had achieved miracles with the resources allocated to it. Everyone knew the financial situation the country was in but the government would allocate more funding as soon as possible. For a start it would aim at deploying more trained workers from the civil service to the authority.

Dr Galea said the authority was currently working on codes of practice on the operation of cranes and fork lifters and it was hoped they would be issued next year.

He said it was simply unacceptable that workers were forced to buy their own safety gear. That was the legal responsibility of employers and the workers should, in confidence, report such abuses to the authority.

There was no plan to introduce administrative fines that would not constitute an incentive for employers to update their enterprises with the authority's guidelines. The attitude up to now had been one of gentle persuason, education, incentive and inducement. But it was only reasonable that those who did not comply after the first and second formal warnings should be held accountable.

Dr Galea said the authority was holding talks on the accreditation of persons who were competent in health and safety issues.

On stress, he said said this was a worrying condition, but this was a very subjective matter which one could not easily consider within the context of health and safety. Still, the law briefly mentioned stress and the authority gave information on stress management.

The minister said he agreed that the MCESD should next year be invited to discuss health and safety.

The financial estimates were approved after a division with 30 votes in favour and 25 against.