The Occupational Health and Safety Authority needs an additional 27 employees, the commitment of other social partners and a culture change, that required the collaboration of stakeholders, to be able to implement its national strategy on health and safety at work for 2007-2012, launched yesterday.
The OHSA has 22 employees but, voices from the floor at a conference on Health And Safety At Work: Consolidating Achievements And Engaging Further Commitments, held at St James Cavalier, in Valletta, yesterday, pointed to the lack of human resources, the fact that they were "working alone" and the constraints this brought about.
The authority is in urgent need of qualified architects, occupational psychologists and engineers, it was pointed out in the national strategy.
The OHSA unveiled long-term plans to improve health and safety levels and action to reduce the risk of accidents and illness at the workplace, particularly in those sectors that posed the greatest risk.
The authority's chief executive officer, Mark Gauci, insisted that the required improvements, through the involvement of stakeholders, could contribute to economic competitiveness and sustainability. The process had to be self-regulating in that employers realised it was in their own interest to offer their workforce a safe environment.
Based on the conservative calculation of two per cent of the GDP, the lack of OHS measures at the workplace cost the country Lm42 million (€97,833,682) a year, Dr Gauci estimated.
The authority required adequate funding to achieve its goals, adding that "the task ahead is never-ending, the resources being what they are".
The OHSA would be working on coherent, simple and effective policies that are aligned with EU directives and the local reality. It was proposing a defined system of penalties that could be imposed with the least administrative burden possible on the authority.
It intended to promote organisations that made an effort to improve OHS at their workplaces, while naming and shaming those who operated in a risky manner and repeatedly broke the law.
Dr Gauci said that despite a general downward trend in occupational accidents in Malta, which has one of the lowest fatality rates in the EU, the figures were disturbing.
Over 60 per cent of fatalities occurred in the building industry and more than a quarter of these deaths involved foreign workers. A large proportion of accidents involved unskilled workers aged between 20 and 29.
It is estimated that by 2020, depression will be the main cause of absenteeism at work, Francisco Jesús Alvarez Hidalgo, from the European Commission's Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, said.
Speaking about the Community Strategy 2007-2012 On Health And Safety At Work: Improving Quality And Productivity At Work, he praised the Maltese strategy, calling it impressive and pragmatic.
The European target was a reduction of 25 per cent of occupational accidents. However, whether that percentage is for each member state or overall has not yet been defined.
A photographic exhibition and the book Work In 20th Century Maltese Art were also launched at St James Cavalier, yesterday.
Commissioned by the OHSA, the book contributes towards an increase in awareness about the local art scene and occupational health and safety. Researched by art historian Dennis Vella, it relates how work has been treated by local modern artists and to what extent it has influenced the development of occupational health and safety standards at a national level.