Updated 1.20pm
The Occupational Health and Safety Authority is putting mental health and stress at work at the top of its agenda and wants action about them in the same way as it works to avoid accidents in other sectors such as the construction industry, Parliament was told this morning.
European Affairs and Equality Minister Helena Dalli said during a debate on the Authority’s financial estimates that injuries and deaths at the place of work continued to decrease during the past years.
Seven workers died last year – four on construction sites, one at the harbour, one related to a crane incident and a foreigner in a fork-lifter case.
The minister said that even one death was one too many and she appealed to all workers and employers to pay more attention and avoid risks.
She said the OHSA had covered much ground, but as European inspectors had confirmed, more resources were needed, not least for the OHSA to put greater focus on areas such as stress suffered by workers.
Therese Comodini Cachia, for the Opposition, noted that during the past 10 years, injuries at the place of work decreased but this was not uniform for all sectors.
During the first six months of 2016, accidents increased in agriculture, fisheries, construction, transport and public administration.
To have over 3,000 injuries during a year was no joke.
Dr Comodini Cachia appealed to the Prime Minister not to re-appoint a government MP as chairman of the authority because this was not conducive to autonomy and impartiality. (Dr Deo Debattista, then Labour MP and now Parliamentary Secretary, was OHSA chairman).
The new Nationalist MP underlined the need for the OHSA to put more importance to accidents which stemmed from stress and mental health issues.
She also referred to the Paqpaqli incident and emphasised the need for adequate precautions in public functions.
She also noted that during 2016, the authority had 30 notification of asbestos removals, yet it was only in April this year that the authority issued guidelines for asbestos removal when its dangers have been known for a long time.
Replying later, Dr Dalli said that the OHSA in 2016had consolidated various existing guidelines into one document on the removal of asbestos to facilitate compliance with regulations in place since 2006.
Parliamentary Secretary Deo Debattista said senior members of the Labour Inspectors Committee, evaluating Malta’s level of occupational health and safety, had left the country claiming to have gleaned new knowledge from the exercise. This, together with the evaluation carried out by EU Commission, showed that the OHSA remained a small but well-functioning organisation.
The size of the Authority, and the resources at its disposal, featured prominently during the debate, with MPs from both sides of the House emphasising that the authority lacked sufficient manpower to carry out inspections as frequently as it should.
Opposition MP Godfrey Farrugia praised the Authority’s “heroic” efforts to cope with its limited resources and called upon the Government to increase these resources in the next Budget.
Robert Abela (PL) expressed the need for the OHSA to have an office in Gozo.
Mario Galea (PN) also made his case that the Authority’s next chairman should not be an MP, since the OHSA was also tasked with investigating breaches of health and safety regulation by Government entities and in issuing permits relating to Government activities.
The Authority’s failure to cause the area surrounding the Sant’Antnin recycling plant to be evacuated following last month’s fire, and its rubber-stamping of the berthing of LNG Mediterrana in Marsaxlokk Bay prior to the publication of the required risk assessments, had both raised eyebrows, he said.
Replying, Dr Dalli denied that the OHSA had rubber-stamped the berthing of LNG Mediterrana in Marsaxlokk Bay prior to the publication of the required risk assessments. The go-ahead was given, she said, after European Commission experts had completed their studies and ensured compliance with safety practices.
Many of the speakers chose to focus on the mental side of occupational health and safety. Mario Galea said that in view of the fact that the Maltese workforce had a higher than average rate of mental illness than the European average, the OHSA should encourage employers to have mental health policies in place.
Opposition MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici stated that it was crucial that employees possessed an awareness of their own workplace conditions, and of the protections and rights guaranteed them by law.