Construction worker dead, another injured after ceiling collapse in Sliema - BCA says works were unsanctioned

Updated at 5:43pm with PN statement

The construction works on a Sliema house which claimed the life of one worker and landed a second in hospital were still awaiting a permit, the Building and Construction Authority said on Saturday.

A 51-year-old construction worker from Albania has died after the partial collapse of a ceiling inside the house he had been working in. A second Albaninan worker, aged 31, managed to exit the building on his own after the collapse and was treated for slight injuries at Mater Dei Hospital.  

The two men, employed by as yet unidentified contractor, were carrying out renovation works on a house in St Ignatius Street in Sliema when neighbours heard a loud noise some time before 10am. A woman who lives close to the site of the accident told reporters she rushed outside and saw a large plume of dust and a man emerge from the building, asking for an ambulance for his colleague who was trapped inside.

Soon after, the Civil Protection Department was on site to help extract the construction worker from the rubble.

The police spokesperson said that CPD officers had pulled out the man's lifeless body from under the debris. The spokesperson added that both Albanian nationals lived in Żebbuġ.

Magistrate Philip Galea Farrugia is conducting an inquiry. Officials from the Occupational Health and Safety Authority and the Building and Construction Authority were also on site.

In a brief statement issued in the afternoon the Building and Construction Authority said that it had immediately launched an investigation into the collapse. "It also emerged that the works being carried out on the interior of the property did not have the complete approval of the Planning Authority, as the application with that authority was still pending and neither had there been an application with the BCA, so therefore there was no permit for the works."

OHSA says legally-required paperwork was not submitted 

The OHSA also released a statement later in the afternoon, confirming that the paperwork required by law had not been submitted and so it had not been notified about the works. It is investigating the incident, together with other authorities.

The incident is the first construction related death since the conclusion of the public inquiry into the death of 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia, who lost his life in a construction site collapse in December 2022. That inquiry had revealed multiple problems with the way the construction sector is regulated and those regulations are enforced. The government had subsequently set up an inter-ministeria committee to implement the inquiry's recommendations.

Incident a 'wake-up call' for a Government dragging its feet on implementing Sofia inquiry recommendations -PN

The Nationalist Party called for the building up of skills and competences required for better workplace safety in the wake of the most recent construction-related fatality, accusing the Government of lagging behind in fully implementing the Sofia Inquiry recommendations.

In a statement issued in the hours after Saturday’s collapse of an unsanctioned site in Sliema, which led to the death of one worker and injury to another, the PN said that the authorities “should seriously build themselves [up] with the resources, knowledge, competences and attitudes needed to enhance the prevention of accidents at dangerous workplaces,”  describing the current situation as one where the relevant authorities were “lost in efforts leading nowhere and red tape that only leads to a waste of time and added costs.”

PN Shadow Minister for Planning and Lands Stanley Zammit and Shadow Minister for the Maritime Sector, Social Dialogue and The Fight Against the Cost of Living Ivan Castillo, saluted the memory of the, as yet unnamed, worker who lost his life today “and all those who have lost their lives or been injured by a failed system.”

Zammit and Castillo cited numbers published by the National Statistics Office which show 20 reported deaths at the workplace in 2022 and 2023, 55% of which relate to the construction sector. 60% of those incidents involved Maltese citizens, mostly in elementary level jobs, they said.

The PN is pushing for the introduction of systems, such as skills cards, in order to ensure that workers in dangerous industries are given the necessary training, including that related to health and safety at dangerous sites, before being allowed to work on them.

“It seems that what Minister Dalli referred to as wake-up calls that the Labour Government has had so far, even though some of them have left victims, have not been enough to take effective action to safeguard health and safety at the workplace,” reads the PN statement.

The two opposition shadow ministers pointed out that the Public Inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia, who also lost his life in a construction site collapse in 2022, had acknowledged that "the problem is not to write laws and pass them through Parliament" and had insisted on "a political will to translate into the enforcement of those laws, by giving public entities the means and personnel needed to do so".

“Despite the discussions it is having with itself, the Labour government is still failing in this key aspect,” reads the statement.

“The Nationalist Party strongly emphasises that instead of the Government continuing to drag its feet and instead of the Authorities remaining silent, they should see to the delivery of all the resources necessary so that our workplaces will no longer be an altar of sacrifice as a result of the lack of political will and the incompetence of our leaders.”