Freeport pays €780,000 in damages over injuries

The Malta Freeport has been ordered to pay €780,000 in just over eight years in cases in which the company was found guilty of negligence by the courts.

Last month, a court ordered the Malta Freeport to pay a port worker almost €224,000 in compensation for a workplace injury.
Victor Fenech was adjudged to have suffered serious injuries in a 2008 accident in which a container, which was being unloaded, fell on his truck cabin.

Fenech was severely injured in the back, neck and hip and medical experts told the court that the trainee worker required a hip replacement and suffered a 15% disability.

At the time of the accident, the crane was being operated by a trainee worker who had only joined the company a few days before.

The court noted that the company failed to present enough evidence on why the trainee was operating the crane without supervision, and proclaimed that the Freeport must ensure a safe work environment.

In another sentence handed down last month, a court awarded €31,400 in damages to a former Freeport worker who was left with a permanent disability after he lost his balance and fell backwards from a height of one storey, landing on a passageway on board a vessel. 

As a result of the 2008 accident, Francis Cutajar, suffered an eight percent disability and spent five months away from work.  

Although not directly employed by the Malta Freeport, the court held that the company still had a responsibility for the safety of workers who were carrying out works at its terminals. 

In this case, the accident could have easily been avoided had Cutajar been given protective clothing and safety harnesses, the court said.

These sentences are only the latest in a series of cases in which the Malta Freeport was ordered to pay compensation for injuries, with the company paying a total of €779,685 since 2007.

The €224,000 compensation was by far the largest in recent years, with a court holding that the company had failed in its duty to minimise health and safety risks to workers and was responsible for the injuries suffered by its employee.

The court cases unearthed by MaltaToday include at least one death and 11 injuries. 

The company’s management was unable to provide precise figures on the number of injuries in recent years before the Santa Marija holiday but Malta Freeport CEO Aaron Farrugia said the statistics will be provided by Monday. 

In comments to MaltaToday, Farrugia said the port strictly follows the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code and gave an assurance that the company employs health and safety managers who implement and ensure that all regulations are adhered to. 

While underlining that any accidents at work not only have negative consequences on workers but also dire financial consequences on the company, Farrugia said “you must keep in mind that 1,500 people work at the Freeport and this poses a lot of dangers. However, we take health and safety very seriously, otherwise we would not be granted the licences to operate.” 

The health and safety regulations are applicable to all workers, including Freeport employees, truck drivers, representatives of the shipping lines and agents, hauliers, contractors and visitors.

According to the Freeport’s regulations, anyone found not in compliance with these regulations will be escorted out of the terminals.

The most serious accident in recent years saw Alfred Zerafa die on 2 October, 1998 after falling the height of two containers while he was working in the hold of the vessel “Marchallenge” which was berthed in the Freeport Terminal.

In its judgment the court had concluded that Freeport Terminal (Malta) plc had failed to provide Zerafa with a safe system of work. Despite being instructed to work at a certain height within the ship’s hold, Zerafa had not been provided with a safety rope nor had he been instructed to use a rope.

It also resulted that there were patches of oil where Zerafa was working and this had added to the chances of him slipping and falling from a height.

Mr Justice Raymond Pace had declared that the evidence produced showed that Zerafa failed to wear a safety helmet provided to him, meaning that the victim bore responsibility for one-fifth of the accident while the Freeport bore four-fifths of the responsibility.

In 2012, the court found that the damages sustained by Zerafa’s heirs totalled €100,000 but since the Freeport bore four-fifths of the responsibility, it was ordered to pay the family €80,000 in damages.

A year later, the Freeport was ordered to pay a trainee crane operator €108,800 after he was injured on being left unsupervised during his training schedule back in May 2005. The trainee, Patrick Gatt, suffered a 5% permanent disability to his neck and back.