Determinants that increase health and safety risks for migrant construction workers in Malta

Abstract

The construction boom that started around 2013 fuelled the need for more workers in the construction industry. Maltese workers were avoiding work on construction site preferring other less physically demanding jobs. The alternative to indigenous workers was to import the workforce, the timing coincided with an increase both in legal and illegal migration. Workers from poorer European countries, Africa, Asia and the middle-east started pouring in the country filling the lacuna for manpower, mainly for menial work. Statistics were showing that migrant workers on construction sites were involved in a disproportionate amount of accidents and even deaths, highlighting the fact that they might be more at risk than local workers. The purpose of this research was to identify the determinants that may increase health and safety risks of migrant workers on Maltese construction sites. A structured interview was drawn up and one hundred migrant workers and fifty Maltese workers were interviewed and the results of these interviews were analysed in a quantitative exercise. The results confirm the hypotheses that migrant workers are more at risk than their Maltese counterparts and that migrant workers can be a risk to other workers as well. The research result suggests that both the Health and Safety Authority and the employers have to take corrective actions in order to eliminate or reduce the increased risks. Some of the conclusions reached were that migrant workers need to be trained in health and safety matters including the safe use of personal protective equipment, language training should be an important part of the employee formation, supervisors must make sure that their instructions are well understood, medical tests and medical surveillance should be carried out prior to and during the employment of all workers and that workers must be made to feel safe while at work. The employers and the Health and Safety Authority should introduce new measures and ensure that existing legislation is followed and that all construction sites are compliant.