The majority of Maltese workers interviewed in a pan-European survey acknowledged that in the past five years Malta had made strides in instilling a better health and safety environment at the workplace.

Seventy-two per cent of the workers interviewed, 1,000, agreed that health and safety measures had improved, with 13 per cent describing the situation as “much better”, according to the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, published yesterday in Brussels.

Malta’s results are much better than the average in the EU-27 where 59 per cent agreed they had witnessed better health and safety conditions.

Mark Gauci, Occupational Health and Safety Authority CEO, expressed his satisfaction at these results which he felt recognised the authority’s hard work.

“Our work has started to show,” he said when contacted.

“The survey clearly shows there is more awareness about the benefits of having high levels of OHS and more information available than there was five years ago, a time which roughly coincides with the authority’s establishment.”

Dr Gauci said the survey’s conclusions demonstrated that, contrary to what several public statements seemed to imply, the vast majority of people in Malta believed the levels of occupational health and safety had improved substantially over the past five years.