Workplace fatalities are not normal. Mostly people do not die working at facilities. Most workers will spend their entire working lives not getting seriously injured or killed. However, accidents do happen, and the tendency to attribute life-threatening incidents to fate, or even worse, to blame a dead worker for a fatality, is unacceptable.
An Occupational Health and Safety Authority report claims that 1,553 people were involved in non-fatal accidents at work in the first six months of 2019. The same report seems to take comfort in the fact that so far this year occupational accidents have fallen by six per cent over the same period last year.
Just after the publication of this report, the media reported the death of a foreign worker who was electrocuted. Another foreign worker fell four storeys from a building site in Qawra. The collapse of residential properties adjacent to building sites in Mellieħa and Gwardamanġa indicates that the duty of care for the safety of workers and the general public is not being given the importance it deserves.
The recent review of building regulations does not seem to have done much to define who is the ultimate owner of health and safety responsibilities in building sites. These sites are acknowledged to pose the highest risk to construction workers as well as the public.
In a recent article in Times of Malta, Chris Mintoff, an architect and former president of the Chamber of Architects, argues that “besides the mason, no other person on a construction site – Malta’s most dangerous workplaces – needs any credentials. With all these possible amateurs on our construction sites, the only surprise from the recent disasters is that they do not happen more often.”
While traditional safety efforts, such as reducing slip, trip and fall hazards, have helped to drive down occupational injury rates, the number of severe injuries, illnesses and fatalities remains far too high. A re-engineering of health and safety standards and the way these are enforced is long overdue.
While every workplace presents its particular health and safety risks, constructions sites are arguably the most dangerous. Falls, Struck By An Object, Electrocution and Caught-In or Caught-Between incidents are the most common causes of fatalities and serious injuries.
Effective workplace safety is a two-step process. The process involves firstly, technical support from tools and machinery that can shield and protect in dangerous situations, and secondly human support in the shape of comprehensive training, instructions and guidance. Neglecting either of the two will most likely cause the safety system to have ‘holes’ that will lead to breaches and dangerous working conditions for everyone at the site.
One wonders how many professional, competent health and safety consultants are being roped in by employers and contractors to advise on how to guarantee protection and compliance according to site- and case-specific conditions.
The OHSA should insist that safety training must be a top priority for any company, regardless of the size or the industry. Safety training done by a professional safety consultant at regular intervals will educate employees on how to use tools, how to spot a potential hazard, and how to maintain a health and safety culture in the workplace.
Ultimately, accident prevention stands or falls with every individual on site and cannot be considered solely as a structural or corporate issue.