On January 25, the General Workers' Union is organising a national conference on occupational health and safety. It is pertinent to explain why this topic was chosen. For a start, occupational health and safety is relevant to all branches of industry, business and commerce, covering everything from traditional industries to information technology, from the national health service and care homes to schools and universities, leisure facilities and offices.

Unfortunately there are many obstacles to the achievement of good standards, including the pressure of production or performance targets, financial constraints, cultural habits and a lack of expertise.

From experience, the GWU can say with confidence that Maltese employees are not fussy and sometimes take considerable risks to accomplish the jobs they are assigned to do.

And this is the root of the problem. Very often employees are simply not aware of the risks they face - or take these risks out of fear of being negatively branded or even fired. On the other hand, management might take health and safety obligations too lightly. In Malta, many companies are not in the habit of eliminating all risks and hazards before a job is started, for myriad reasons.

It is therefore no surprise that we are lagging behind the European Union average when it comes to the effective enforcement of occupational health and safety practise. We cannot afford to be complacent if we are to prevent injuries and fatal accidents.

Certainly, the local Occupational Health and Safety Authority is doing its utmost but it cannot do miracles with its current staff complement, especially when you consider that Malta is just one big construction site at the moment. This is very relevant as statistics from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work show that more than 1,300 workers every year are victims of construction accidents. According to international research, workers in this sector are three times more prone to fatal accidents and twice as likely to be injured compared to those in other sectors.

This is why the GWU's health and safety institute, named after Turu Micallef, is organising this conference.

The late Mr Micallef was a former GWU official and a leading figure in this area, insisting on the establishment of a local health and safety authority back in the late 1980s. He was also an active member of the Commission for the Promotion of Health and Safety, representing the workers' interests.

The conference theme is Health and Safety at the Place of Work... The Problem is There; How is it going to be Solved?.

A number of stakeholders have been invited to take part, including Education Minister Louis Galea, Malta Labour Party spokesperson Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo and Azzjoni Nazzjonali chairman Josie Muscat, as well as representatives from the OHSA, employers' organisations, trade unions and social partners.

As a union, the GWU believes that there are powerful reasons why organisations should strive for higher health and safety standards. These incentives are moral, legal and economic. Indeed, the union beleives that entities should work together to improve effective management systems to reduce injuries and ill health;

demonstrate the importance of health and safety issues at a broader level;

invest in safety equipment and in the training of their employees; report publicly on health and safety issues within their organisations, including their actual performance against targets.

To achieve long-term results, the importance of safety and well-being needs to be instilled in children and adolescents through the educational system from an early age because in this way, they will carry these ideas forward into their future work and private lives. We cannot afford to wait until they enter the labour market to start preaching about safety at work. Indeed, research shows that accidents continue to be the main cause of death among teenagers and young adults in most of the highly-industrialised countries.

This means we need to sow the seeds of occupational health and safety sooner rather than later. Occupational health and safety education should be integrated into various teaching and learning programmes. The OHSA is already pushing this concept, but more effort by all stakeholders is immediately required.

Once young people become sensitive to problems and dangers at the workplace, there is a much better chance that they will change their approach and insist on more control over their own destiny.

• Ms Gatt is the GWU corporate executive.

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