Court acquits three Gozo Ministry officials, points at GWU foundation’s responsibilities over worker’s death

Three Gozo Ministry officials have been acquitted of all charges arising from the death of worker Carmel Attard in 2021, with the court pointing to the safety responsibilities of the General Workers Union-linked foundation that employed him and the contractual duties of the architect overseeing the project.

Gozitan Magistrate Jean Paul Grech, who delivered the judgment, cleared Eco-Gozo director Joseph Cutajar, director general Vicky Xuereb and foreman Joseph Xuereb of involuntary homicide and workplace health and safety offences.

Attard, 52, died on 18 March 2021 when the roof of the Dwejra public toilets collapsed while he was working on it. He fell and became trapped beneath the debris, suffering fatal compression asphyxia.

The court found that the prosecution had failed to establish criminal responsibility against any of the three defendants.

Its reasoning distinguished administrative involvement in a government project from effective control over workers and the execution of work.

Cutajar’s involvement concerned administrative matters, including funding and communication with the architect. Vicky Xuereb had no direct operational involvement in the works before the accident. Neither had ordered the roof’s demolition.

Joseph Xuereb supervised the maintenance workers, but the court was not persuaded that he had instructed or authorised them to demolish the roof.

Instead, the court accepted evidence that he reprimanded Attard the previous day after learning that demolition had begun, telling him that nobody had instructed him to touch the roof. Workers were told to collect debris the following day.

The court concluded that Attard had undertaken the demolition on his own initiative after hearing the architect’s assessment that the roof needed replacing.

It noted that the demolition proceeded without adequate support beneath the roof.

The judgment examined the employment arrangement under which Attard and his colleagues worked for the Ministry for Gozo while remaining employees of the Community Work Scheme Enterprise – a General Workers Union foundation awarded a government multimillion-euro contract to act as an employment agency for people registering for work.

The foundation, whose board includes senior union figures, including former president Victor Carachi, assessed and selected workers, provided training and paid their wages. It receives government payments that include a management fee.

The court considered these factors relevant when examining who bore employers’ obligations under workplace safety legislation.

Although the agreement with the ministry assigned safety duties to the receiving entity, the court did not accept that this automatically made the ministry the workers’ employer for the purposes of criminal liability.

It also highlighted architect Matthew Joseph Casha’s contractual responsibilities, including technical assessments, project management, necessary documentation and coordination of relevant safety measures. Neither his criminal liability nor the foundation’s was determined in these proceedings.

The court criticised the police investigation, observing that officers relied on recommendations from the magisterial inquiry without sufficient further investigation. A recommendation to prosecute, it stressed, did not establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The acquittals follow years of questions about accountability.

In August 2022, The Shift reported that OHSA had prepared charges and passed them to police, but proceedings had yet to begin.

By November 2022, the three ministry officials had been charged. The Shift reported that no foundation officials had been charged at that stage.

The judgment clears the three accused but leaves unanswered whether separate proceedings were brought concerning the responsibilities of the foundation or the project architect.