‘Accident-prone’ construction industry has most workplace injuries

Malta’s construction sector registered the highest rate of injuries at the workplace in 2020, overtaking the transport and storage sector that previously had the highest injury rates between 2015 and 2019.

An annual report by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority said construction also accounted for the majority of deaths at the working place in 2021.

The calculation is based on the number of claims for injury benefits per 1,000 workers in each economic sector. In 2019 and 2020, the injury rate in the construction sector amounted to around 26 per 1,000 employees down from 34 in 2018. But the decrease was less pronounced than that in transport and storage, which registered the largest number of injuries between 2015 and 2019. In this sector reported injuries went down from over 32 per 1,000 employees in 2019, to less than 20 in 2021.

The report describes the construction industry as “a major contributor to economic development” but also as an “accident-prone industry.” Besides the risks posed by the working environment itself, the report points at “organisational factors that influence and increase the creation of a hazardous environment”. Falls from height are the biggest contributor to injuries and fatalities on construction sites, particularly from “unguarded edges and work equipment”.

The report refers to a “larger number of inspections” of construction sites and a “larger number of administrative fines issued to transgressors.

But the report suggests that since not all workers in the sector are officially registered “it is reasonable to assume that the injury rate in this sector would in fact be lower than the ones quoted in the report”, since the actual total number of construction workers is larger than the official one.

To back this argument, the OHSA curiously refers “to the high proportion of foreign workers losing their lives at work, a large percentage of whom would not be registered as being employed or self-employed with the relevant authorities”. But the report gives no indication whether injuries could also be under reported simply because of the large number of unregistered workers.

Official figures indicate a downward trend in terms of claims for injury benefits, with the manufacturing sector having the steepest decline. According to the report during 2020, no sector experienced more than 30 injuries per 1,000 employees, down from the rate of 35 previously registered in previous years.

But 2021 also saw the highest number of fatalities since 2009 and the highest number of deaths since 2003 and 2004 when 12 workers lost their life.

Less workers getting injured but more dying

All nine fatal accidents at work in 2021 involved male workers and six were workers of a foreign nationality.

Six fatalities involved workers engaged by their employer, whilst the remaining three were self-employed. The majority of fatalities occurred in the construction industry or work related to this sector such as during the installation of solar panels.

Six fatalities resulted from fall from heights, two were struck by an object, whilst one died from asphyxiation whilst carrying out works in a confined space.

The OHSA’s report concludes that this trend indicates that stakeholders in the construction sector stakeholders need “to address more rigorously the risks of falls from heights” and underscores the need for comprehensive hazard identification, risk evaluation and control, whatever the nature of the work.

The report also calls for a greater focus on foreign workers adding that an analysis of data of fatalities over the past years shows that 32% of all deaths in Malta involve foreign workers. In 2021 foreigners accounted for 66% of all deaths.

According to the report workers are “more likely to be at a disadvantage due to temporary employment conditions, abuse and the underground economy”. Moreover a high number of migrant workers also end up doing jobs and using machinery that they are not familiar with, “and they shy away from raising unsafe issues at their workplace for fear of losing their jobs or even being deported”.

All these factors, together with language and cultural barriers make migrants a vulnerable group of workers and put them at a higher risk of occupational accidents and fatalities.

To address this issue the OHSA had issued a guidance document addressing issues such as the duties of employers with regards to health and safety issues including the legal rights which workers are entitled to including that of refusing unsafe work and above all, “being able to work in a safe and healthy workplace without fear of violence or harassment.”

This document was circulated widely amongst migrant and human rights organisations and translated into Arabic, Bangla, French, Somali, Tigrinya, Shqip, German and Italian with the help of the UN refugee agency.

During 2021, OHS Officers carried out 4,159 workplace inspections, which resulted in 1,065 improvement notices. OHS Officers also issued a total of 573 orders to stop work activities. Furthermore 780 letters of intimation were issued to parties deemed in breach of legislation, resulting in a total of €297,750 fines being imposed.

The report also suggests that the OHSA needs to boost its staff complement.

In December 2021, the authority only had 35 employees including nineteen persons in professional and technical grades and sixteen engaged in administration and support. The annual report refers to a human resources plan approved in 2020 which recommends the hiring of 43 additional personnel as well as the establishment of three hubs to enhance the Authority’s response as and where necessary.