Setting up a health and safety unit at the Malta Drydocks : a comparative study

Abstract

One of the negative aspects perceived by the public with regards to Malta Drydocks (MDD) is its headline making accident record. Sensationalised by the press, used and abused by those who are for or against the shipyard, this accident record has also been caught up in the intricate web of opinionated controversy that has become a principal characteristic of Malta's biggest and oldest industrial activity. In the case of Health and Safety at any workplace, controversy is worse then useless. It only detracts from the importance of the one vital point - the worker has the right to be protected from all work place hazards. In the specific case of MDD, in view of the many other real difficulties the shipyard is facing, it is possible to forget the importance of employee health and safety or to use the much publicised hazards either to glorify or damn MDD and its workers. It is however, not realistic to consider MDD Health and Safety in isolation from its other problems and indeed from the problems the ship repair industry is facing internationally. Ignoring these problems means ignoring some of the principal root cause of health and safety problems and the reason why permanent solutions to these problems are so difficult.