During the first six months of the year, officials from the Occupational Health and Safety (OHSA) made 2,177 inspections in different workplaces both during working hours and after working hours.

The workplaces ranged from micro businesses to large companies within the manufacturing and construction sector, among others.

During the inspections, the OHSA said that the officers inspected a number of things and they took action according to the level of risk that existed.

The OHSA said that after the inspections, the officers almost had 400 private meetings with whoever was responsible for health and safety in order to discuss the results of the inspection.

Whenever an entity or individual failed the inspection, but it was not serious, “improvement notices” were issued by the OHSA. These notices would include instructions to improve the health and safety in the workplace that would need to be carried out by a certain date.

During the first 6 months of the year, 357 “improvement notices” were handed out.

The OHSA further revealed that there were 403 workplaces where the hazards presented were considered serious enough to potentially cause death or serious physical harm. In these cases, OHSA officials issued orders to stop work activities immediately until the hazard was fixed. Also, depending on the case, administrative fines were issued or judicial action was taken once the OHSA finalised its investigation.

During this period, the OHSA issues 253 administrative fees to entities and individuals which amounted to over €100,000. In addition, legal proceedings were also initiated in court for 74 individual cases.

The OHSA said that these cases continue to be followed up to ensure that workplaces become compliant.

The OHSA revealed that the most common hazardous situations encountered by officials were the lack of safety when workers were working at height, construction site project supervisors who did not adhere to the general principles of health and safety, and construction site clients who did not follow the recommendations of the project supervisors.

Also, during this period the OHSA audited 2,466 equipment examination reports and 951 constructions notification forms, among others.