The church’s Justice and Peace Commission dedicated its Worker’s Day message on Sunday to construction workers: their safety ”must never be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth and limitless greed. A worker can never be reduced to a disposable cog in the wheel of a soulless economy,” it said.

It said it wanted to draw attention once again to the tragic fate of construction workers who were losing their lives while trying to make a living.

It said that although serious workplace injuries and fatalities occurred also in other economic sectors, the highest number of workplace fatalities happened on construction sites. 

“As a country, we cannot afford to reach a point where these tragedies are normalised by being presented as faceless statistical numbers,” it said.

“Every accident is one too many and a concerted effort by all concerned must be made to ensure that negligence and lack of enforcement do not lead to such tragedies,” it added.

It noted that according to the annual reports of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, 10 fatal accidents took place in the construction industry between 2018 and 2021. And in the first four months of 2022, two construction workplace fatalities have already been reported. 

The commission called for a “culture change” which leads to “proper enforcement and clear accountability”.

“If the right to a safe, and healthy work environment is to remain truly universal and not become a privilege for the few all stakeholders must remain extra vigilant not to allow any form of rights backsliding,” it said.

It called on the authorities to:

• Ensure that labour and construction laws are universally enforced, without exception, by providing adequate resources to authorities such as the OHSA which is responsible for workplace health and safety issues;
• Follow-up on the 2020 National Audit Office report which focused on the construction industry to identify any recommendations which have not yet been acted upon;
• Undertake an in-depth study involving all relevant stakeholders with the aim of analysing the underlying reasons behind these accidents, with a clear commitment to implement without delay the recommendations outlined in such a report and go beyond the knee-jerk reactions that follow the news of a fatality at a construction site;
• Promptly and heavily sanction, including by licence withdrawal, all employers who exploit any workers or are found to be responsible through negligence for serious injury or loss of life of their workers;
• Raise more awareness among construction workers about their right to a safe and healthy working environment and about the importance of making use of the safety equipment provided and following all other safety procedures. 

The commission said that the purpose of any economic activity – including the construction industry – is that of serving people, favouring healthy relationships with each other and the natural environment, while promoting the common good.