Occupational health and safety responsibilities among the various stakeholders involved in a construction project

Abstract

The awareness of the importance of occupational health and safety has developed rapidly throughout the years. Indeed, one cannot but appreciate the corresponding statutory evolution that led to the present health and safety legislative systems. This study focuses on the evolution of occupational health and safety legislation in Malta with a specific reference to its application to the construction sector. Due to its inherent and steadily increasing complexity, construction remains a high-risk sector with a very high incidence rate of both fatal and non-fatal accidents. The stakeholders identified under relevant local legislation, in particular under Legal Notice 88 of 2018 [Subsidiary Legislation 424.36], are of great significance to this study. These individual roles will ultimately determine the chain of responsibilities linking the various stakeholders on a construction site. The duties and responsibilities of each stakeholder as defined in the L.N. are hence explored in depth and are compared to corresponding EU and UK provisions. This is accompanied by the identification of possible refinements and amendments to the local legal provisions regulating each role, with the ultimate objective of rendering the coordination of health and safety on construction sites clearer and more effective. Finally, this study identifies a number of typical local, multi-contractor/multi-client construction development scenarios. For each scenario, it then studies the way responsibilities are shared between the stakeholders, as well as how these responsibilities shift as the construction development proceeds through the various stages. This research revealed that that there is the need for the responsibilities to be more clearly and specifically identified among the stakeholders throughout the various stages of the construction development. A number of legal lacunae to be addressed were identified and recommendations on how they can be improved made with an objective of rendering construction sites safer. In addition, they would facilitate the process of attributing tort in case of accidents.