Nov 11 - GSD Critical of Bossano's Health and Safety Policy
In criticism of Health and Safety Minister Joe Bossano’s recent comments at the latest Health and Safety seminar held on Monday 4th November, the GSD has claimed that Minister Bossano ‘simply does not know what he is talking about in matters of H&S’.
The party insists that this follows on from his Parliament track record ‘Parliament which shows little regard for the development of H&S policies.’ At the seminar, Minister Bossano claimed that both public and private employers ‘are not conducting risk assessments with regard to their employees’ working duties’. The GSD explains that this ‘distorts reality, as there are many employers (both public and private) who systematically conduct risk assessments on a continuous basis, either in relation to their own employees or with contracted-out work.’
Minister Bossano went on to qualify his comments to the Gibraltar Chronicle, insisting that what he meant was that ‘given his own department’s failure to produce risk assessments for its staff arising from their own working environment, he claimed that he needs to put his own house in order before he demands other employers for H&S compliance with the law’. The Opposition claims that what the Minister also omitted to reveal how the Department of Employment is going to support small size employers in the delivery of this task without causing undue financial and administrative burden on them.
Reflecting on Minister Bossano’s former H&S record they claim he has only provided one basic induction course to trainees in his flagship Future Job Strategy scheme and has refused to state the name of the companies involved in breaching the Factories Act. The party goes on to state, ‘when asked which Government Departments, Authorities and Agencies had established H&S Committees, his answer was ‘none’, when the GHA has had one for a number of years which includes among other things the collection and analysis of risk assessments (although the GHA refuses to give Parliament copies when requested by the Opposition). When asked if Mr. Bossano is willing to contemplate producing an annual report by the Department on H&S matters, the Minister declined to do so.
‘Almost two years in Government, the GSLP/Liberals have shown no vision, strategy or ideas on how to develop H&S in Gibraltar. It is clear that Mr. Bossano does not care, or is willing, to take H&S matters seriously as part of his responsibilities. It would be ideal if Mr. Bossano spent some of the acclaimed 84 hours he works a week from hiding Gibraltar Savings Bank monies into Credit Finance Co. Ltd and dedicated a reasonable amount of time to develop H&S policies.’
