Health & Safety

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act (Chapter 424 of the laws of Malta) and various regulations made thereunder, comprise the bulk of the regulatory framework for the promotion and safeguarding of the physical, psychological and social well being of all workers in all workplaces. The said regulatory framework:

• establishes the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to apply and monitor compliance with the health and safety regulatory framework, to prepare regulations and codes of practice, to promote the dissemination of information, education and training, to carry out investigations, and to carry out other statutory functions assigned to it by law;
• provides for the appointment by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority of Occupational Health and Safety Officers, who are tasked with various duties relating to the implementation of the health and safety regulatory framework, as well as performing such work as may be assigned to them by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority from time to time;
• prescribes various duties on the employer to ensure the health and safety at all times of all persons who may be affected by the work being carried out for the employer;
• comprises rules and regulations that seek to regulate various matters relating to health and safety at the workplace, including to address risks that may be inherent in certain industries or sectors or which may relate to certain parts of the workforce.

What are the principal duties that attach to an Employer?

The Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act requires an employer to take and implement measures to prevent physical and psychological occupational ill-health, injury or death, which measures should be taken on the basis of the following general principles of prevention, namely, by:

• the avoidance of risk;
• the identification of hazards associated with work;
• the evaluation of those risks which cannot be avoided;
• the control at source of those risks which cannot be avoided;
• the taking of all the necessary measures to reduce risk as much as reasonably practicable, including the replacement of the hazardous by the non-hazardous or by the less hazardous;
• giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures;
• adapting the work to the worker, particularly insofar as the design of workplaces, the choice of work equipment and the choice of working and production methods are concerned, in particular with a view to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate, and to reducing their effect on health;
• adapting to technical progress in the interest of occupational health and safety; and
• the development of a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology, the organisation of work, working conditions, social relationships and the influence of factors related to the working environment.

The employer must also provide such information, instruction, training and supervision as is required to ensure occupational health and safety.

An employer should also ensure that at workplaces wherein a sufficient number of workers are employed, there shall be elected, chosen or otherwise designated a person or persons to represent workers on all matters relating to the promotion and protection of their occupational health or safety, and who shall be consulted in advance and in good time by the employer on matters which may affect occupational health and safety.

Other duties and requirements

Regulations made under the authority of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act prescribe various additional and more specific duties and requirements, including:

• minimum occupational health and safety requirements that apply whenever required by the features of the workplace, the work activity being carried out, the circumstances prevailing, and the degree or nature of a hazard, including for instance in relation to building structure and solidity, emergency routes and exits, first aid, fire detection and fighting, ventilation, temperature, lighting, and sanitary equipment;
• measures which encourage and ensure improvements in the health and safety of workers at work through the prevention of risks, the promotion and safeguarding of occupational health and safety, and through the elimination of those risks and factors which are likely to cause accidents at work, with an emphasis being made on the undertaking of risk assessments at the workplace and the implementation of appropriate health and safety policies and procedures;
• measures that encourage the exchange of all information concerning occupational health and safety amongst all stakeholders at workplaces, and the consultation, balanced participation and training of workers and their health and safety representatives;
• measures to be taken for the protection of young persons and maternity at workplaces, with an emphasis being placed on the undertaking of assessments of the occupational health and safety hazards which may be involved at the place of work, and the implementation of certain minimum standards and requirements by an employer in relation to such employees.