A high-ranking planning authority official allegedly phoned doctors at a health centre to dissuade them from issuing medical certificates to employees complaining of bad smells, Labour environment spokesman Leo Brincat said yesterday.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is denying the allegations.
According to claims received by Mr Brincat, a number of employees at Mepa’s office in Hexagon House, Marsa started complaining again of ill health stemming from gaseous odours at their workplace. They went to a health centre, where doctors certified them as suffering from the ill-effects of exposure to dangerous gases.
Subsequently, an unnamed “high-ranking Mepa official” allegedly called the health centre and threatened to report the doctors to the Health Superintendent if they persisted in issuing medical certificates, Mr Brincat said.
He called on Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to order an independent inquiry into the allegations.
He said that, if true, the allegations were a “barefaced case” of the authority responsible for safeguarding environmental health not only failing to do so “but also disregarding workplace health and safety regulations”.
This would appear to be the latest incident in the long-running saga of nauseating smells at Hexagon House. Smells have plagued the area for years, with matters reaching a head earlier this year.
Following a union-approved employee walk-out last February, Environment Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco had taken the novel step of relocating to Hexagon House to understand workers’ complaints first-hand.
At the time, the Mepa Professional Workers’ Union had announced that the bad smells had provoked no fewer than 50 separate employee evacuations since September 2008.
Dr de Marco left Hexagon House in April, saying the odours appeared to be “fuel-related” and that a number of measures would be undertaken to remedy the situation, among them an upgrade to the building’s ventilation system as well as the implementation of a fumes recovery mechanism for fuel bunkering operations.
When contacted, a secretariat spokesman explained yesterday that a series of air filtering measures were in the process of being implemented at Hexagon House.
A new duct system throughout the building, a carbon filter ventilation system and a complete air conditioning and filtration system were being installed, the spokesman said.
The works would be completed within the next four months and were designed to minimise any inconvenience to employees.
In a statement rebutting Mr Brincat’s allegations, Mepa said odour problems had “significantly subsided” following the stop order issued to Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Co Ltd last April and that employee complaints had been “minimal” since then.
It said that “the source of (yesterday’s) complaint was identified and the operator was ordered to stop until further notice”.
Mepa did not clarify who the operator was and what activity had caused the problem.
A spokesman for the Mepa Professional Workers’ Union said it would rather not comment on issues pertaining to workers’ health. It would issue a statement in due course, the spokesman added.
When contacted, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority said it was unaware of the allegations.