Occupational Health and Safety risks in SMEs

The risks to Health and Safety linked to work in different environments were dealt with during an event organised by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority when one of the co-winning films of the Healthy Work Places Film Award was screened.

Automatic Fitness by Alejandra Tomei and Alberto Couceiro from Germany is an animated satire on the modern working world which takes the meaning of the term ‘human resources’ to its extreme. It shows a world where work and life have become a relentless conveyor belt and people act more like medicated robots, monotonously undertaking tasks before rushing to the next one.

The screening of the film was followed by a discussion by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority entitled “Occupational Stress in SMEs: Turning Concerns into Actions”.

The discussion was opened by Chartered Organisational Psychologist, Dr Vincent Cassar, who dealt with a presentation about the various aspects leading to work-related stress. This was followed by Dr Mark Rosso from the OHSA who talked about the Maltese framework for the control of work-related stress and the importance that this is adopted by the social partners at the national level. This framework document outlines the measures that the social partners should take including among others awareness-raising, training and education of their own respective officials and representatives at company-level. In the document, social partners are encouraged to share resources through clear communication channels within an organization as well as between different enterprises.

Employer representatives on the other hand should ensure that while the objectives of the company are safeguarded, the specific roles of individual workers are also made clear and understood. This also includes ensuring adequate management support, matching responsibility and control over work, improving work organization and processes, working conditions and the work environment. Included in this document is also a Model Policy on WorkRelated Stress that can be adapted and adopted by companies (both private and public) with the aim of establishing an effective and consistent approach to the prevention of work-related stress throughout the company and to provide support where cases of stress are identified.

Dragan Donkov from the Richmond Foundation then addressed the tools that are available to handle work-related stress. He described the problems faced by SMEs in comparison to larger companies, including lack of managerial resources, policies and HR functions, the problems of sudden growth, economic difficulties and the fact that SME owners have to be available 24/7. Mr Donkov also outlined the mental health risk assessment tool, as well as other tools such as training, consultancy, psychological and trauma support as well as policy development and implementation.

The second part of the discussion was characterized by a series of presentations by the main social partners in Malta, including representatives of the employees, small business owners, SMEs and trade unions. All speakers acknowledged the importance of the human aspect of stress as well as the assistance and information available. They however stressed the need of more practical help and guidance to SMEs to eradicate the difference in the level of protection between SMEs and larger companies when dealing with work-related stress.

One common point of agreement was the fact that stress should be considered and dealt with like any other important procedure at work and not as an after-sight. It was also stressed that reducing stress at the workplace reaps very positive results.

The Healthy Workplaces Film Award puts safety and health in the spotlight, recognising the best documentary or animated film on workrelated topics. It aims to show occupational safety and health in an informative yet creative way.

This year, two films co-won the award. Apart from Automatic Fitness, another film entitled Work for One Day shared the award. This is a documentary style film charting the dead-end nature of precarious work in a Berlin job centre. Director Rita Bakacs follows her protagonists (all of them male) who go to the Neukölln Job Centre every day at 4amin the hope of getting one of the in demand day jobs – hard work for little money, and often no work at all.

The jury explained their reasons for awarding a joint prize saying: “These two films – we think – are very much related – one is about having no work, the other about being overworked. We would like to make a joint award because these two films support each other and are complementary, and should be shown together.”