Bossano’s Record in Health & Safety Abysmal It has become clear, from various remarks from experienced and qualified Health & Safety (H&S) practitioners, that Mr. Bossano’s comments at the latest seminar on H&S of Monday 4th November 2013, demonstrates that he simply does not know what he is talking about in matters of H&S. This follows on from his track record in Parliament which shows little regard for the development of H&S policies. At the seminar, Mr. Bossano made the claim that employers (both public and private), are not conducting risk assessments with regard to their employees’ working duties. Such a statement simply 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. However subsequently, Mr. Bossano has had to qualify his comments (as shown in the Gibraltar Chronicle article of the following day) to mean, 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. What Mr. Bossano also omitted to say, given that the overall number of employers in the private sector employs between 5 and 15 employees, is 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. The fact remains that Mr. Bossano’s record in H&S is abysmal. During the time he has been responsible for H&S and Employment, he has only provided one basic induction course to trainees in his flagship Future Job Strategy scheme. At the last Budget address of June 2013, he did not utter a single word on H&S at all! When asked in Parliament which companies have been in breach of the Factories Act, Mr. Bossano refused to state the name of the companies involved, despite the fact that this is readily available in the UK online. When asked which Government Departments, Authorities and Agencies have an accident book available, his typical obscurantist outburst was, the same as was the case during the GSD Government. 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.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 19:54:58 +0000