The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was invited to give the opening speech at the Occupational Safety and Health Seminar held this morning.

The seminar is hosted by the IOSH Gibraltar Associate Branch, in association with Unite the Union and the Government of Gibraltar, and the focus for this year’s event was “working together to beat occupational cancer”.

Here is Mr Picardo’s speech: 

Ladies and gentlemen, 
Thank you for the invitation to attend this morning.

Unfortunately, I cannot stay long.

I have an appointment with Her Excellency the Governor this morning at 10am for which I cannot be late.

I want to thank Unite (and IOSH) for the organisation of today.

Since we were elected we have made huge strides in changing the Government's attitude and culture of health and safety.

We have understood the importance of health and safety permeating not just places of obvious risk, like construction sites, but also places of apparent safety, like offices.

But our making investments in protecting people from risk has not been universally popular, believe it or not.

For example, the dangerously damp offices I found some people in No6 were working in have changed.

But that has cost money, of course.

Where people will now be able to work in a modern office area, I have been accused of creating a palace.

Where our children have moved from a Victorian, damp, dark and unfit for purpose school at St Bernard's, to a state of the art school, I stand accused of spending too much money.

Do our opponents think that this is reckless spending?

Well, "what price safety?" I ask those who criticise our important and essential investments in these fields.

I am accused of increasing recurrent costs and employing more people.

But what price safety in our communal pool where we did not have the right numbers to provide cover?

Do I continue a regime unfit for purpose that we inherited from the previous administration? Do we not fix the Government's stock of blocks? 
Or do we leave them with chunks of cement falling off?
 But of course that costs money.

Health and safety is something that no-one wants to deny.

But spending money is something that some challenge because of their myopic failure to understand that many areas require investment to guarantee health and safety.

And there is still much to do. Much to invest.

Human resources have to match up the requirements of some of the rest of the things that we have already done.

Unite the Union will be our partner in that if we are re-elected.

Organised union activity in the work place is as essential as Government's own investment and regulation.

We have been partners already with Unite in ushering in a new era of recognition of the importance of a culture of health and safety.

As they were our partners in our joint desire to establish the marking of Workers Memorial Day as a bank holiday in which I we "Remember the dead and fight for the living."

But let me boast most proudly of one thing. 
In the past four years no one has died at work.
 Despite a major construction boom, no major life threatening injuries have been reported. No family has lost a loved one.

And for the first time in our legal history, we have implemented the clause in the Factories Act which enables us to give the proceeds of a fine imposed by our courts to the grieving family of a worker who lost his life in Gibraltar and in part to another who was seriously injured.

Whether we will be able to continue the improvements of these, brilliantly successful four years is now a matter for you and the rest of the electorate.

You are faced with our opponents’ vision of under investment, unnecessary austerity and cuts. And our reality of a growing economy, growing GDP, growing investment and reducing debt. A reality which is palpable all around us and which I have no doubt the majority will choose. Those are the choices now.

Thank you for your support these game-changing past four years. I trust I can count on your support again for the next four.
 Thank you
.

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