CM highlights Gib’s workplace safety record in final Workers’ Memorial Day address 

Fabian Picardo used what he said would be his final Workers’ Memorial Day address as Chief Minister to highlight Gibraltar’s 15-year record without a death caused by an industrial accident, while urging unions and working people to unite against “exploitation” and division on the left.  

Speaking at the annual ceremony, Mr Picardo said that in the 15 years he had served as Chief Minister, nobody in Gibraltar had died because of an accident at work.  

He said that this was a record of which he was especially proud, adding that while a man had recently died of natural causes at work, it had not been because of an industrial accident.  

He said the issue was also a deeply personal one, recalling that his grandfather had died at work.  

Those were tragedies, he said, that belonged to the past and must never be repeated in the future.  

Mr Picardo said the ceremony was always a poignant one because it remembered people who had left home in the morning and did not return to their families in the evening. 

But, he said, remembrance alone was not enough. 

“We must work to protect the living,” he said. 

The Chief Minister said workers’ protections depended on unity among those on the left. 

Referring to wider international trends, he said the answer was not division but solidarity among workers and unions.  

“The right has only one interest, to exploit working people so that those on the right can make more from the labour of others,” he said. 

He said that this would be the last time he would address the ceremony as Chief Minister and appealed for unity, referring briefly to “controversy” ahead of the event “as to who lays a wreath today, which union represents who”. 

“You cannot allow that to happen,” he said. 

“Because if the left is divided, if working people are divided, there’s only one entity celebrating, the right.”  

He said he hoped that future Chief Ministers would still be able to say that no one had died at work in Gibraltar because of an industrial accident.  

He warned that the alternative was dangerous, describing it as “literally a matter of life and death”.  

Kevin Martinez, speaking on behalf of Unite, followed with a message focused on remembrance and continued action to improve workplace safety.  

He said Workers’ Memorial Day was recognised around the world as a moment when workers, trade unions and communities came together to remember those who had lost their lives, suffered injury or experienced illness because of their work.  

He said the occasion was also about renewing a commitment to safer, healthier and fairer workplaces, highlighting mental health, psychosocial risks, workplace abuse and trade union rights as key themes, and pointing too to the positive work of Gibraltar’s Health and Safety working group.  

Mr Martinez said progress had been made but added: “Health and safety must never stand still.”