Education and Employment Minister Louis Galea has had a meeting with representatives of the General Workers’ Union to discuss occupational health and safety. The meeting was requested by the union in the wake of the latest in a spate of fatal accidents, mostly at construction sites.

The GWU is suggesting a national conference on the subject in a bid to eliminate the accidents and improve occupational health and safety.

Dr Galea thanked its representatives for their commitment and said that the first responsibility lay with employers, which was why the government was proposing legislative amendments to make fines against abuses harsher.

The minister said he was prepared to accept the proposal for a national conference where new ideas could be raised. He said that in the last six years there had been 48 fatalities at workplaces, 30 of them in the construction industry. The workers had their part to play but there were employers who were ignoring regulations. The government intended to take measures against this.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb referred to the meeting later in the day and said it had been agreed that the Occupational Health and Safety Authority’s inspectorate would be expanded to 14 officials.

The union’s proposal for a national conference had been widely accepted in the country, he added. The union would be doing its best to curb abuses at workplaces, he said.