Safety authority shackled by manpower shortage

MPs from both sides of Parliament agreed yesterday that the Occupational Health and Safety Authority is being constrained by a shortage of manpower.

They also agreed that the focus of the authority needs to be on accident prevention through education and awareness.

Education and Employment Minister Louis Galea, speaking at the opening of a debate on the authority's budget praised the authority for its performance, despite having limited resources.

He said that the estimates showed that the authority was projecting an outlay of Lm883,030 with Lm500,000 sourced from the EU Regional Development Fund and Lm100,000 from the European Social Fund. Such funds, he said, could not be used for recurrent expenditure and thus could not be used for the recruitment of personnel, despite the needs the authority had in this regard. Some of the funds may not be immediately available. The government's subvention was of Lm283,000.

Dr Galea said the government was determined to gradually raise the authority's personnel so that it would be better able to perform its extensive tasks.

The minister underscored the primary duty of employers to protect the health of their employees not only in terms of the law and in the interest of the workers, but also because since most Maltese companies were small, an occupational accident had a major impact on business performance.

He said the authority had made significant progress in raising awareness on health and safety issues both through campaigns in places of work as well as the media and schools.

Dr Galea said the construction industry remained the biggest source of concern for the authority because it represented the biggest source of occupational accidents, including fatalities. The authority had published for consultation the first part of an updated code of practice and it was hoped that the whole exercise would be completed next year.

Over the past year the authority held courses for some 600 people, but unfortunately it was unable to achieve all its aims due to staff shortages.

Dr Galea said prosecutions were not the primary aim of the authority. Its purpose was to educate and persuade employers and workers to observe health and safety rules. However the authority was firm with those who broke the law after education, promotion and persuasion failed.

The minister stressed that employers of five workers and more were legally bound to conduct risk assessments on a regular basis.

The authority was determined to raise conformity with the law. An inspection of 197 places of work over the past year showed that only 34 per cent of employers had a written risk assessment as required by law. Only 39 per cent of places of work had a workers' health and safety officer, which was also a legal requirement.

The work of the authority's inspectors was varied. For example, the authority's Radiation Protection Board was working to ensure safety in the area of radiation control in the 150 places of work which used material that was radioactive.

The authority over the past 12 months also issued 2,249 certificates for lifts, 49 for boilers, 200 for fork lifters and 283 for cranes, apart from other equipment. Its officials headed 109 prosecutions.

Dr Galea said the official statistics showed that the number of accidents was declining. Nonetheless the authority was concerned that relatively minor accidents were going unreported, a situation which it wanted to reverse.

NSO figures showed that in 2003 there were 4,746 reports of injuries at work including 12 fatalities, and over the past year there were 2,062 including seven fatalities, which was still seven too many. This downward trend had been achieved despite an increase in the number of gainfully occupied.

Concluding, Dr Galea said the authority was also very active in EU decision making and advisory committees.

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca (MLP) said that despite the extensive legislative framework there needed to be stronger political commitment for more efficient law enforcement because far too many people still paid lip service only to occupational safety, as the authority itself admitted in its annual report. The authority was doing its best, but not enough headway was being made, year after year in several sectors, because of its manpower shortage.

Its 16 inspectors were meant to cover 40,000 places of work but over the past year they could only inspect 1,400 places.

The past year saw an increase in work, including a significant increase in reports filed by the public, but the resources of the authority had remained static. How could the authority raise awareness but then could not be proactive in accident prevention because it lacked the required resources?

She observed that while public awareness had increased, the authority had complained about the low number of reports on suspected occupational diseases by doctors, even though legal obligations existed in the case of the latter. This was serious because repetitive strain, among other situations, often had a devastating impact in the long run unless tackled in time. Was it a case of the doctors not being aware of these conditions or were they not aware of their reporting obligations?

Mrs Coleiro Preca said that although the laws were generally sound, there needed to be better coordination with other authorities. She had come across the case of a furniture maker where emissions from spray painting drifted into a neighbouring house. The authority's inspectors agreed that the level of emissions was harmful and the issue was referred to Mepa to enforce a requirement on the installation of filters. But many months on, no action had been taken. If this was a case of a legislative vacuum, without a proper definition of responsibilities, it needed to be clarified.

What was the role of the Health and Safety Authority when third parties, usually residents, complained of noise, emissions or immediate danger from neighbouring properties, such as when construction work was carried out? This issue was becoming more serious as many properties in village cores were being demolished and rebuilt.

Mrs Coleiro Preca praised the authority for its campaigns among school children but said occupational health and safety needed to also find its way into the curriculum.

She said that awareness over occupational noise needed to be raised. The authority had issued a publication on this and related subjects but they needed wider dissemination.

Turning to the code of practice for the construction industry, Mrs Coleiro Preca said that while this document would be used for purposes of prosecution after incidents, the priority needed to be accident prevention through persuasion. That, however, could only be realised if the authority had the manpower it needed not just for site visits, but also for training courses.

Mrs Coleiro Preca said international statistics showed that young people were the most vulnerable to occupational accidents, owing to lack of training, a lack of precautions and a lack of knowledge of the obligations of their employers. Furthermore many put their income before their health. The authority should focus particular attention on them.

There was also a need for the authority to raise awareness of the hazards caused by dangerous substances found in anything from sprays caused by hairdressers to chemicals in manufacturing industry and printers and pesticides.

Nationalist MP Michael Asciak welcomed the decline in occupational accidents and said he was sure that the work of the authority was a factor in this decline.

However, accidents happen, and would continue to happen. While one could not deny that the authority lacked resources, even doubling the number of inspectors would be a drop in the ocean. One could not have an inspector at every place of work and the accent therefore should be on education and sensitisation, with inspections being carried out randomly and when there was suspicion that regulations were not being observed.

He had worked in the area of occupational safety for seven years and appreciated how difficult it was to persuade both employers and employees to take the precautions expected of them. How many places of work had a designated health and safety officer, including Parliament itself?

While employers had legal obligations, the issue of health and safety needed to be tackled more seriously by the trade unions too. When there was complacency among workers there was usually complacency among employers.

Dr Asciak noted the work being done by the authority within the European Health and Safety Authority and which, next year, would be focusing on muscular skeletal injuries with the slogan being "lighten the load".

Joe Abela (MLP) said the government should lead by example. At the hospital itself, some wards lacked patient lifters, to the detriment of the medical staff. Where such equipment was available, workers were often not trained on its use. Practices also needed to be upgraded. It was, for example, still common for medical staff to use draw sheets, which strained their shoulders. Abroad they used slide sheets. Did the authority's inspectors ever tour the hospital?

Mr Abela said that while, before the EU, it was often argued that accession would make for greater health and safety awareness, this had now died down. Weren't the trade unions pressing the government and private employers on this issue? Was it human for nurses to work 12-hour shifts? He knew that the new hospital would be a model hospital, but what about the current situation, where wards were excessively hot?

Did the inspectors look into working conditions in private old people's homes?

Mr Abela called for proper research into how work practices in various sectors could be improved and into the cost of occupational accidents to the economy.

Winding up, Dr Galea said he agreed that the authority's focus should be on accident prevention and that the authority needed to work more closely with other authorities and departments.

Referring to the point made by Mrs Coleiro Preca on hazards to neighbours caused by activity on adjoining properties, Dr Galea said the Health and Safety Authority's actions were limited by the law and circumstances such as inconveniences caused by noise or emissions or danger in construction sites fell within the ambit of other legislation such as the police laws.

Nonetheless he felt that the authorities, be they the police, Mepa especially, or others, should promptly investigate and act upon such complaints, especially when public danger was involved.

Turning to the dissemination of information, Dr Galea said information packs had been given to secondary school teachers for use in classrooms and similar packs were to be sent to all households and places of work.

Turning to Mr Abela's reference to 12-hour shifts, Dr Galea referred to arguments over the Working Time Directive and said that both those in favour and those opposing opt-outs recognised that some services could not be given if what were considered as being ideal working hours were introduced.

On the danger from pesticides, Dr Galea said the authority was well represented on the advisory board on the use of pesticides.

The estimates were later approved after a division.