The Health and Safety Authority, five years after its setting up, remained seriously under-manned and under-funded, Opposition spokesman Marie-Louise Coleiro-Preca complained in Parliament yesterday.

"The issue of resources remains a crucial one. We cannot have a sound legislative mechanism, including EU directives, while at the same time the authority is severely limited by scant resources" Mrs Coleiro-Preca told Parliament.

The authority had ended up being reactive, rather than proactive. It needed to be proactive, working to improve workers' quality of life, but its lack of resources meant it was ending up only reacting when occupational accidents took place.

Mrs Coleiro-Preca was speaking during the debate on the annual estimates of the authority.

She said the authority had a vast area of responsibility and it was therefore incomprehensible that the staff complement was still 22.

How could employers be expected to invest heavily in improving their places of work when the government was not setting the example in the health and safety authority itself?

Reports by the International Labour Organisation underlined the need for health and safety authorities to not only act to prevent occupational accidents, but to promote measures to prevent slow but long-term negative consequences on the workers and their families.

Unfortunately the government was hardly giving any attention to the authority.

Mrs Coleiro-Preca said she backed the call made in the annual report for better collation of data on injuries at the place of work. There needed to be better reporting by, for example, doctors. How many of them had reported repetitive strain injuries? Statistics were needed for Malta to have a clear extent of the problem it faced. But that had to be accompanied by proper government investment and commitment to tackle this area.

In the interests of the long-term welfare of the people the current complacency needed to be replaced by effective action, including law enforcement for both employers and workers to rise to their responsibilities. It was good that a focus on health and safety was now also being made in schools. Significantly the majority of accidents involved young people. This sector was clearly a vulnerable one and needed to be better targeted.

It was also good that the authority was twinning with similar organisations abroad. Her suggestion was that the authority would also rope in NGOs such as the girl guides and the scouts who could give an input even with regard to safety at home.

Research into emerging risks, such as the use of new chemicals, was also important so that the authority could take remedial action in good time. And there were other sectors which also needed to be considered, such as bullying at workplaces, an issue never discussed by the authority in Malta, as well as stress, about which there was extensive research in the UK and the US.

Furthermore, health and safety issues could not be isolated from other sectors, such as the job-family balance. Concluding, Mrs Coleiro-Preca said health and safety had a direct impact on the people's quality of life and the government could not treat it in a piecemeal manner.

Karl Chircop (MLP) said work practices were changing at an accelerated rate and it was important that the authority kept abreast with developments. But it needed to be resourced to achieved its aims.

Dr Chircop said an area which needed to be tackled was the increasing stress being placed on part-time workers, many of whom were suffering mental anguish. Some employers were ordering part-timers to resign and become self-employed so that they would not be eligible for social benefits.

Turning to non-fatal industrial accidents, Dr Chircop said that according to the NSO report published in August, there was a shift in emphasis - 33 per cent of accidents were in manufacturing industry, 15 per cent in construction, 10 per cent in the transport industry and another 10 in retail business. Most accidents previously used to take place on building sites. The reason for this shift needed to be looked into.

The authority, Dr Chircop said, was overburdened as evidenced by the number of workplace visits, which were a meagre 1,205, according to authority's own report.

How could the authority's 10 inspectors cope, considering that some of them were specialised and could not cover other areas? On each visit, two inspectors are sent and these further aggravated the manpower situation. It was obvious that the government needs to increase the number of inspectors.

The Labour MP called for better coordination between government agencies, pointing out, for example, that shortcomings in the building industry led to industrial accidents.

Winding up, Education and Employment Minister Louis Galea said there needed to be a clear definition in everybody's mind as to what constituted occupational health and safety and what did not fall within the remit of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA). For example, a building which affected the environment by creating dust or posed a danger to pedestrians did not fall within the remit of the OHSA but other agencies such as Mepa or the police.

Dr Galea said the opposition was right to argue that the OHSA needed to be better resourced. It needed better funding to engage the professionals it needed. He hoped that in the same way as funding was being increased slightly for next year, the momentum would gather pace in the future.

All considered, however, the OHSA was playing an important role and had managed to win respect as a point of reference on health and safety. Its officials had proved to be competent and professional.

The estimates were later approved after a division, the opposition voting against.

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