Health and safety authority headless for six months

The health and safety authority has been functioning without a chairman and a board for six months, after the term of the previous members expired in September and nobody was appointed in their stead.

However, a Health Ministry spokesman said the names of the nine-member board will be presented to Cabinet for approval next week.

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority was transferred to Minister Joe Cassar's portfolio in February when he was appointed minister.

"We have been working on the matter and the names of the new board will be discussed in Cabinet next Monday," the spokesman said.

Failure to appoint the nine-member board has not affected the day-to-day running of the authority since it can still function headed by the chief executive. However, the board is tasked to set policy and the chairman carries legal responsibility along with the chief executive.

For UĦM general secretary Gejtu Vella, the authority's long wait to have a board was unacceptable.

"We cannot understand how a board remains unconstituted for six whole months, when it has a set time frame when appointments expire. It is of serious concern to us that an authority such as OHSA finds itself in such a position," Mr Vella said.

The board is composed of nine members: a chairman; the director of industrial and employment relations, who automatically sits on the board as deputy chairman; a person with competence in occupational health and safety; a person appointed by the minister responsible for health; a person appointed by the minister responsible for economic affairs; two members appointed by the minister to represent trade unions and two members appointed by the minister to represent employers.